Calm Before the Storm
by LizzeXX
Summary: Hook/OC - When Emma and Mary Margaret enter the Enchanted Forest they stumble across one Captain Hook, though he isn't quite alone. In his company they find a young woman to whom he's given his heart, a woman that radiates innocence, yet has startling ties to the darkest of magic-users and a rather strong desire to return with them to Storybrooke. First in the Sorceress's Grimoire.
1. The Doctor

A/N: Hola! Lol, welcome to the first story, Calm Before the Storm, of my second Once Upon a Time series The Sorceress's Grimoire :) This is my second attempt at a Once Upon a Time series/OC, I've written one before this that was a Gold/OC story :) I've written some other stories for quite a few other shows and movies for anyone who might be interested ;) This story will follow the episodes more in terms of what's happening in the present, but will also have an Enchanted Forest flashback/backstory chapter afterwards :)

This story should be about 35 chapters long and updated daily. This will also be a Hook/OC story that may also feature some Swanfire for warning ;)

~8~ is a scene break.

Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time...or we'd probably have just one full season of the baddie instead of a split season :)

~8~

The Doctor

The Enchanted Forest used to be a place of light and love and magic, so much magic that it could almost be felt in the air, even by those that were unable to tap into the talent to wield such a craft. That was not the forest that two figures were faced with as they stood on the edge of a small camp, a refugee camp of sorts, staring at nothing but corpses that littered the ground.

It had been a year, one year since the curse that had frozen their land had lifted and nothing was the same. There were only a handful of people still left in the land after the darkest of curses had ravaged and pulled all those that hadn't been protected from their world, trapping them in a strange new world. Everyone knew of the Dark Curse, of the Evil Queen who had been so embittered against her step-daughter, Snow White, that she went to extreme lengths to see the woman suffered. Everyone knew a curse was coming, could remember the dark purple clouds sweeping across the lands and then…

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

It was as though they had merely blinked and the land before them had changed. They were left feeling as though an agonizing time had passed though they knew not how long exactly, not till whispers had started that the Evil Queen was being defeated. There had been hushed words that it would take 28 years for the Queen's curse to fail, for the realm to be restored to its former glory, though it appeared that the Curse had only needed 27 to start breaking apart. Looking at the land now, it was hard to believe it would ever reach that point again. The trees were overgrown, the crops had died and failed, the ogres had returned, and the kings and queens of various kingdoms were gone. There would have been anarchy, had it not been for the refugee camp that had been constructed by Sir Lancelot.

The man had taken control, had organized the camp, had designated what little resources and talent remained towards trying to just survive, to rebuild. It had been a year since then, since they took one breath in one year and released it nearly 3 decades later. They were still struggling, but making do. It was almost as though every inhabitant of the Enchanted Forest that was left had come to settle in the camp, save for a band or two that were nomadic and stayed in the deep forests.

That was all no more though.

Every person in the camp was dead.

"I hate this," one of the figures spoke, a woman, surveying the corpses and the smoking camp with wide blue eyes that were filling with tears at the thought of all the lives that had been lost, "I hate that this is the price to find the other realm," she looked at her companion, "It's just awful," she sniffled, "Couldn't we have found another way there?"

"We've been trying, love," the man beside her spoke, his accent thick, "For a year, we've been trying. This may be the only way to seek those we are after."

"Mother will not be happy with this," the girl muttered, crossing her arms but lifting a hand to her mouth, nibbling at her fingernails.

"Oh I doubt your mum will be pleased," he agreed, reaching out to take her hand from her mouth, pressing a kiss to her knuckles, "But this will get us to her, you'll see her again."

She pursed her lips, "Why did you have to agree to help _Cora_?" she asked him, "Killian, we _could _have found another way. We…we could have joined up with the others, the ones from that other realm."

There had been more whispers, that two from the land that the Curse had taken them to had returned. She didn't know which ones though, no one had said anything about it and, by the time she had arrived there…well, there wasn't anyone alive to ask.

The man sighed, moving his other arm to scratch at his chin, revealing his hand to be missing and replaced with a shining metal hook, "I don't think you'd want to, love," he shook his head, "Trust me. Of the two evils, Cora is the lesser."

She frowned at that, "I doubt there is anyone worse than Cora," she shivered just thinking of the heartless woman, literally, the woman had ripped out her heart ages ago if the stories were true. She was a woman, many people would say, was befitting of being the mother of the Evil Queen.

"Rumpelstiltskin," he muttered, an edge to his voice.

The woman gave him a sad look, reaching out her free hand to touch his cheek, a smile ghosting across her face at the feel of the stubble on his chin as she looked into his blue eyes, letting her thumb rub against his cheek, "You will see your Crocodile again," she told him gently, "But…promise me you'll remember that revenge never solves anything."

His jaw clenched at that, she could feel it under her hand, but he turned his head to press a kiss to her palm, "I'll keep it in mind," he could promise that at least, not that he'd listen, not that he wouldn't enact his revenge, but that he would remember her words.

She let out a gentle breath, though he could see disappointment in her gaze as she let it fall away from him and towards the corpses once more, "It's just awful," she repeated, "She didn't need to do this, she didn't have to take their _hearts_…"

He tugged her closer by the hand he still held, moving his arm around her shoulders as she felt tears coming at the sight. It was…a truly vicious and terrible thing to witness, but he couldn't help but think she had been lucky to not bear witness to Cora actually tearing out the hearts of all the men and women and…children there. He knew she wouldn't be able to bear that. The legends of Cora were…terrifying at best, and he knew that the woman in his arms was a sensitive soul, strong as the finest rum, but sensitive like stomach of a new sailor.

She hated this, she hated violence and fighting and people getting hurt, grew pale and queasy at the sight of blood on others, fretted over him whenever he returned from a tavern with so much as a split lip. She didn't like seeing others hurt or in pain, had told him only that she had witnessed her mother in such a state for nearly her whole life and couldn't do a thing to help her save try to offer comfort when she could. She was always trying to make him smile or laugh, to encourage him to speak of his brother, to remember him fondly. She…cared for him, in a way no one had since his brother…centuries ago.

And he found himself clinging to that.

There had been a choice, a year ago, that she could remain in the refugee camp, or she could stay with him. He'd thought, surely, that she would stay at the camp, with other people, helping them, and he'd been shocked (and, though he'd never admit it, heart warmed) when he returned to his ship to see her sweeping the decks and asking when they'd cast off. According to her, the camp would be filled with people that could help each other, but he had no one to look after him. She'd been at his side ever since. At first it had been obligation. He had promised to care for her, to protect her for a client, and she was returning the favor after the Curse was broken. But…she'd stayed for more than that now. And he was happy she had. She reminded him of the man he'd been before he'd been a pirate, brought back that little bit of chivalry in him piece by piece.

"She went too far," she murmured into his chest, "She always goes too far," she sniffled but pulled back, her eyes straying to the corpses, "Whatever happens, Killian, we_ can't_ let her get to the other world. We can't. Who knows what evil she'll spread there. She was left here for a reason."

He nodded, "I'd rather her be trapped in a cage in the lowest levels of hell, as well," he glanced up, seeing a flock of birds fly out of the trees in the distance and sighed, knowing it meant someone was approaching the camp…and there was only one group that would be, "It's time, love."

The girl looked over her shoulder at the camp and swallowed, turning back to him, "Promise you'll be careful?" she asked, "Don't antagonize them with your lewd remarks."

He grinned at that, "I think you mean my charming wit."

She laughed, shaking her head, "Promise me," she reached out and snatched the curve of his hook, "Or I won't let go."

"I wouldn't mind that," he grinned at her.

"Killian," she gave a mock-huff.

He tugged her closer by his hook, touching her cheek, "I promise you, Lyssa," he looked into her light blue eyes, "I'll control my tongue."

Lyssa nodded softly, "I'll be just on the edge of camp," she reminded him, "If you need any help, I'll be nearby. Ok?"

He nodded, leaning in to press a kiss to her lips, his hand curling a strand of her red hair around his finger, letting it slide away before he turned and made his way towards the camp, Lyssa watching a moment longer before moving to the tree line and hiding behind one to wait.

~8~

He held his breath as he heard the women return to the camp, just as Cora had predicted they would. He had been given a brief summary of what had happened, of why they were returning. Apparently the women from the other world were looking for a portal back, in the form of an old wardrobe that had acted as a portal for the first Curse. They had left the camp to get the wardrobe with a warrior, Mulan, and another princess, Aurora, unaware that Cora had taken the guise of Sir Lancelot, had been the man for quite a while, and followed them. A confrontation had happened where Lancelot had been revealed for what he was, Cora in disguise, and the wardrobe had been destroyed. Cora was certain that they would return to the camp, to warn the others not to trust Sir Lancelot, as though Cora were so foolish as to return to the came as Lancelot after that.

That was where he came in, Cora had approached him with a business proposition, to join her cause in exchange for passage to the other world where Rumpelstiltskin had been hidden away. He had…quite a debt to settle with the man and he would see it through if it was the last thing he did. She had known of his past with the Dark One, had come to him for assistance. He was a pirate, deception was in his blood, if there was anyone that could infiltrate the small group of women and either get information out of them or steal what Cora would need once they'd gotten hold of it, it would be him. He just needed a way to gain their trust…which was where this came in.

Cora truly had gone more than a bit extreme, but her anger at losing the wardrobe had been unmatched. She'd stormed through the camp, ripping out hearts left and right, freezing the various people in place so that they couldn't even fight back. It wasn't a fair fight, it wasn't good form at all in his opinion, but he wasn't about to tell the woman and risk her ripping out HIS heart on top of everyone else's. He couldn't risk it, he really couldn't, not when Lyssa was counting on him as well. Too much was resting on this plan working and for it to work he needed to be on Cora's side…unless he thought the women approaching would be a better side to settle on.

If it were just him, he'd have no qualms with allying himself to the Queen of Hearts as Cora was also known, he'd have no qualms doing what she asked and reporting to her. But it wasn't just him, there was Lyssa to consider. It was truly a rock and a hard place she had placed him in. It wasn't safe, for her to be around Cora, but equally he knew that if she knew just who the women were that had come from the other land, she wouldn't want to side with them either. On one side were the 'heroes' and the other the 'villain' and it should have been easy, what with him being who he was, to side with the villain over the hero. But again, there was Lyssa.

Her safety came first and…that might just mean siding with the heroes for this round.

It would depend how the meeting went.

"Oh my God!" he could hear them now, turned his head slightly from where he was lying under a pile of debris and bodies, able to make out a blonde woman in a red leather jacket had spoken, staring around the camp in horror.

"This can't be!" the warrior he recognized as Mulan seemed completely startled and confused, "Our land…we were protected here! We were hidden. How did the ogres find us?"

He felt his hand curl into a fist when he saw none other than Snow White moving over to one of the bodies to examine it. She had changed, her hair was shorter, she was wearing trousers and other odd clothing, but she had a bow and arrow quiver on her back much like the stories said she did when she was a bandit. He could recognize her regardless of her hair, pirates knew what royalty looked like. And even if he'd never seen her before, he would recognize her from other sources.

"Ogres didn't do this," the princess (or was she queen now?) spoke.

"What?"

"Cora did," Snow White stated, straightening, gesturing down to the blood on the chests of the corpses, "Their hearts…they were ripped out. This is her magic, twisted and evil. We have to stop her."

In that one brief statement he could agree with the woman alone. Cora, for all her usefulness, was dangerous.

"Too late," Mulan frowned, "She killed them. She killed them all!"

"Well, we have to stop her before she hurts anyone else!"

He took a breath, knowing that this would be the opportune moment and managed to stick his hand through a small opening in the debris and wave it, making sure to do so weakly but with enough movement to be seen.

"Hey!" the blonde woman cried, spotting him, "Hey! Look!" she hurried over and he closed his eyes, making it seem like he'd just gained consciousness at the sound of their voices.

"There's someone under there!" the princess Aurora spoke and he could feel the debris being cleared off his back, the bodies that half fallen on him being shoved aside, allowing him to roll down onto his back with a gasp, "He's alive."

"Please…" he wheezed, "Please…"

"It's ok," Snow White hurried over to help.

"Please, help me."

"It's ok. You're safe now. We won't hurt you."

"Thank you," he forced his eyes open to look at them, keeping them half drooped, "Thank you…"

Perfect.

~8~

Lyssa held her breath as she stood near a tree, pressed just against the other side of it, but able to hear the blonde woman and Mulan speaking as they were across the camp, near the tree line, discussing the mysterious man they'd found

"Have you seen him before?" the blonde woman asked the warrior.

"Yes, I've seen him around," Mulan nodded, "He's a blacksmith. Came to our camp a couple months ago with his wife, a red haired woman. Said he lost his hand in an ogre attack. They stopped in every so often, but never stayed too long, mostly came to trade for resources."

"Trade what?"

"Fish mostly," Mulan shrugged, "Her father was a fisherman, apparently. Is that important?"

"No," the blonde shook her head, "It's just…people that don't stay in one place usually don't because they don't want people to know them or they don't want people to know they're there."

Mulan nodded, considering that, "Why would Cora leave a survivor?"

"It's messy. Doesn't make sense."

Lyssa frowned at that, curling her hand into a fist as it rested against the tree, straining to listen as they grew quieter.

"You think he's lying?" Mulan realized.

"I think," she glanced at the camp, "If he's the only survivor he'd be more broken up over his wife being somewhere around here and he's not."

Lyssa winced at that, she hadn't considered that Mulan would recognize him. They were there so briefly she hadn't thought they'd been noticed that much.

"Cora's tricked us before," the woman continued, "I don't want that to happen again."

Lyssa leaned around the tree to watch them walking back towards the camp and carefully began to make her way around the trees, trying to get a better view of them and hoping that he'd be able to handle the suspicions of the woman.

Snow White looked up at the blonde as she approached the table where she and Aurora were sitting with their mystery man, handing the man a small goblet of water, "Here you go."

"I can't thank you enough for your kindness," he smiled up at them, "Fortune, it seems, has seen fit to show me favor."

"An island full of corpses," the blonde began, unable to keep the questioning out of her voice, "You're the only one to escape. How exactly did that happen?"

"She attacked at night," he sighed, "Slaughtered everyone in one fell swoop. When she started ripping out people's hearts, I hid under the bodies of those who had already been killed. Pretended to be dead myself. Mercifully, the ruse worked."

The blonde was silent, looking at him intently, as though waiting for some other sort of emotion to leak through, but he was silent, sipping his water. She glanced at Mulan who nodded, understanding what had been said before, the man should either be devastated that his wife was dead or be frantic to return to her after the event he'd suffered, but he was calm, too calm, "So much for fortune favoring the brave."

"It was all I could do to survive!" he defended.

She scoffed, "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I'm pretty good at knowing when someone is lying to me."

"I'm telling you the truth!"

And it was, in a way. Cora HAD attacked at night. She had slaughtered all of them in one move. And he DID dive under the bodies and he pretended to be dead for the sake of gathering their attention when he woke. It just hadn't happened when she'd actually been ripping out the hearts but afterwards. All the rest of it was true though so he didn't know what this woman was speaking of that he was lying.

He may be a pirate, but he had some honor left.

"We should leave here in case Cora decides to come back," Mulan stated.

But Snow White shook her head, "We should start searching for a new portal back to Storybrooke. I only got about five minutes with my husband, not to mention my grandson."

He frowned and looked up at her for that, "You have a _grandson_?" he eyed her, wondering if the curse had frozen them as well as it had in the Forest.

"Long story," Snow White waved it off.

"Well, I know this land well," he offered, "I can guide you!"

He would later admit that he was, in fact, mildly surprised when the blond moved behind him and held a dagger to his throat, "You're not going to guide us anywhere, until you tell us who you really are."

His eyes flickered to the tree, able to see a flash of orange-red just at the side of a tree trunk, before subtly shaking his head in sign not to do anything. He could handle this, he would NOT allow Lyssa to be caught in the middle of this, especially not considering who made up his present company.

~8~

He glared fiercely as he was tied to a tree by a rope around his chest and legs, his arms freer than the rest of him, thankfully with his mouth free of a gag as well, allowing him to speak to the four women as they watched Mulan finish tying him up, "I already told you. I'm just a blacksmith!"

"Sure you are," the blonde scoffed, before putting her fingers in her mouth and letting out a shrill whistle, "You don't want to talk to us? Maybe, you'll talk to the ogres while they rip you limb from limb."

He stiffened at that, not so much for the sound of the ogres he could hear stomping in the distance at the sound of the whistle echoing through the air, but a fifth women that he spotted over their shoulders.

"Lyssa don't!" he shouted.

But it was too late, Lyssa had already moved past them, running to the tree and using his own sword he'd given her to hold onto to swing at the ropes, freeing him. He only barely managed to reach out and grab her free arm as she rounded on the startled women who hadn't heard her approach.

"How dare you!?" Lyssa frowned at them, "I don't believe you! You were going to leave him to the ogres? You are supposed to be the heroes aren't you? And you were just going to let him be torn apart?! That's…that's…that's just…mean!"

The blonde blinked at that, as though questioning if that was the best word the woman could come up with.

"And…and evil," Lyssa added, a faint flush to her cheeks, she really should have picked a better word, "What is the matter with you?"

"With us?" the blonde scoffed, "HE was the one found in the middle of a pile of bodies and then tried to LIE to us."

"Fine, fine," he rolled his eyes, "Good for you," he huffed, tugging Lyssa back more and reaching out for the sword in her hand. It wasn't that he didn't trust her with it, he knew she was skilled with a blade, it was just…it made him feel better, that he had something to defend her with against these women, to have the sword in HIS hand. Even without the blade he knew that she wasn't exactly helpless, but it made him feel better, "You bested me. I can count the amount of people who've done that on one hand."

"That supposed to be funny?" the blonde gestured at his stump of a hand that was looped through Lyssa's arm, "Who are you two?"

"Lyssa," Lyssa stated, "As you already heard him call me," she gave a small mock-curtsy to them.

"Killian Jones," he added, "But most people have taken to call me by my more colorful moniker, Hook."

"Hook?" the blonde repeated.

"Check my satchel," he nodded at the bag that the blonde had taken from him, watching as she opened it and pulled out a metal hook from it.

"As in, Captain Hook?" she gave him an odd look for that, observing him.

She supposed, at the moment, he didn't look much like a pirate as he was wearing a peasant's garb to blend in, but she could see it now, the dark hair, the ear piercings, he DID give off a pirate feel.

"And who are you supposed to be?" the woman looked at Lyssa, "Rose Red?" she glanced at Lyssa's red hair.

She was a thin woman, just a few inches shorter than Hook appeared to be, her hair was held back by a small clip, half up, the rest of it hanging in waves down her back. She appeared to have a long sleeved white shirt on that was cut at the shoulder to reveal just a hint of skin. There was what looked like an apron of sorts over it, light blue in color, more like a sleeveless dress with a boxed neckline that flowed to the ground and tied behind her, though there was a slit down the middle of the skirt that revealed the white dress underneath it. It was a simple dress but she could see hints that told it was well made and that the materials were, perhaps, slightly better fabric than a peasant would be used to.

"I'm just…Lyssa?" the girl frowned, giving Hook a confused look, not sure what she meant, she had already introduced herself as Lyssa, so she didn't know why the blonde would think she was someone other than that, "Analyssa."

"And what the hell was that back there?" the blonde gestured at the camp, fixing Hook with a hard look.

Hook rolled his eyes, "Cora wanted me to gain your trust, so I could learn everything there is to know about your Storybrooke. She didn't want any surprises when she finally got over there."

"She _can't_ get there. We destroyed the wardrobe."

"We heard," Lyssa murmured, "Thank you for that. We don't want her there either."

"You don't?" Aurora frowned.

"My…my mother is there, I think," Lyssa offered, "I've searched for her but she isn't in the Forest any longer and…I just want to find her again. But not if it means Cora will have a way to that realm."

"She's trapped here for now," the blonde nodded, "The wardrobe's ash."

"Did you take the ash?" Lyssa asked.

"No. Why would we?"

"All magical artifacts possess an enchantment on them, the magic that makes them…well, magical," she began, sounding almost like she was reciting an old lesson, "It doesn't go away. If you burned the wardrobe, then the ashes would still contain the enchantment."

"Cora gathered the ashes," Hook informed them, "She's going to use them to open up a portal."

"And how's she going to do that?" the blonde narrowed her eyes.

"No," Hook shook his head, "You want my help, you help us in return."

"Help how?"

"The same deal. Lyssa and I shall help you, if you promise to take us along back to your world."

"And how are you going to help us get home?"

"The ashes can be used to open a portal," Lyssa explained, shaking her head as though she didn't understand why these people didn't know how magic worked, "But a sort of guide would be needed to make sure that you go to the right realm."

"There's an enchanted compass," Hook offered, "Cora seeks it. We'll help you obtain it before she does."

"So, Cora won't make it to Storybrooke, and we'll be one step closer to getting home," the blonde nodded, glancing at a dark haired woman beside her.

"Sounds too good to be true," the woman murmured.

"There's only one way to find out," Hook shrugged, moving to put his sword in his belt, tugging Lyssa to his other side to hold her more securely against him, he could see her staring at the dark-haired woman, a frown of concentration appearing on her face as though she were on the cusp of recognition and he knew, once she realized just which royal stood before her it would not be good.

"You tell me one thing, and whatever you say, I better believe it," the blonde eyed him, "I get why the girl wants to go. Her family's there. But what about you? Why does Captain Hook want to go to Storybrooke?"

"To exact revenge on the man who took my hand," he said simply, "Rumpelstiltskin."

The dark-haired woman frowned at that but looked at the blonde, "It's as good a reason for someone like him."

"Fine," the blonde muttered, "You two are with us, but we're watching you."

"If we're to be traveling together," Lyssa began hesitant, almost sounding like she didn't want to know, "shouldn't we know WHO you are? I know of Mulan and Aurora…"

The blonde blinked, as though just realizing she hadn't said her own name, "Emma," she shrugged, "I'm Emma. Emma Swan. And this is…" she gestured at the dark haired woman, not quite sure how to phrase or introduce her.

"And I'm Snow White," the woman smiled.

Lyssa's expression completely dropped, surprising the four women when she stepped closer to Hook at that revelation, a small frown coming to her face with something akin to fear and an enormous amount of dislike flickering across her eyes. She let out a breath at that, shaking her head as she stared at Snow White, the woman looking more and more confused as the silence rang out. Clearly this was NOT the reaction any of the women were expecting, but Hook had, gently turning her to move closer to his side his hand sliding up and down her arm to comfort her, knowing what she had to be feeling to see that particular woman before her.

Lyssa just swallowed hard, closing her eyes tightly as though she could will the women away with just wishing it to be so, her heart racing and a dark emotion settling over her heart.

Snow White.

The woman before her WAS Snow White, just as she feared.

Hook had been right, of the two evils, Cora was certainly the lesser of the two.

A/N: Ooh...seems like Lyssa doesn't like Snow }:) I wonder why...hmm...we'll have to wait and see :) I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter! :)

For a reference, to help picture Lyssa, an actress that I see as being close to how I picture her in my head is Amy Adams ;)


	2. My Wife?

My Wife?

Lyssa hummed to herself lightly as she slowly woke, the rays of the sun drifting across her face from the small windows on the side of the wall of the small quarters she'd been given on the Jolly Roger. She really shouldn't have had her own room, it wasn't even meant to be hers. According to Killian, or Hook as he preferred everyone call him (though she refused to do so, his name was Killian and that was that), the room she was in was intended to be their sick room, where they might quarantine an ill crewmember or help stitch up another that had gotten injured. She hadn't wanted to accept the room when he'd told her that.

His men had laughed at her, making remarks that it was because it was a sick room and that she was queasy at the thought, that the diseases were seeped into the walls and she was fearful of catching one. They had gotten a good bit of entertainment out of it, out of poking fun at her. Hook had looked as though he'd wanted to throttle them though, she'd heard him muttering later about bad form and how it was wrong to say such things in front of a lady, to tease her and taunt her and treat her thus. She hadn't been bothered by it, their jeers or their barbs at her, she'd heard far worse in her life and nothing they said could truly be something she'd take to heart. Her mother had taught her that the only people that could truly hurt you were the ones that you loved and loved you in return, and that was the safety of love. If the love was true and uncorrupt, then the one you loved would never harm you, because to harm you would be to harm themselves.

She had seen corrupted love, she had seen those that couldn't love purely enough to not harm others. The men had been nothing compared to that. She had merely informed them that her concern lied with THEM. That had quite shut them up. She'd explained that she hadn't wanted to take the room that was meant to be a place of comfort and safety for them, a place where they could see to recover from their injuries and be tended to. There was not much privacy on a pirate ship and she hadn't wanted to deprive them of the little they'd had, especially not in terms of their sick room. Hook had smirked at her for that, as though she'd purposefully said it just to make the men feel guilty for assuming such things about her. But she had been genuine, something that seemed to surprise him.

She tried to be genuine, to be open and honest, no matter what. If it was a private matter, something that she held close to her heart she was less so, she would refuse to speak till she was ready and only then. But she tried to be as true and truthful as she could be with others. There was less that others could do if all your truths were exposed. She had seen manipulations as well and she never wanted to be taken for such a two-faced person, not ever. She would rather be honest to a fault than to be untrusted by those that mattered to her.

So it was quite ironic that she had ended up with pirates in the end, the most deceptive bunch in existence and her.

Her mother had always said that was her worst fault, how much she revealed about herself. She lacked control of her emotions, she knew that. Especially her eyes. But, then again, her mother was rather terrible at hiding what she truly felt if one only looked into her eyes as well. SHE could always tell when something was bothering or upsetting her mother, just like her mother could her. But she was always more expressive, had been since she was a little girl, had heard remarks on it for just as long. Her mother feared for her though, she knew that was the only reason she pointed things out like that to her. She feared that one day someone would come along and take advantage of her trust, would use how she felt about something against her, would be able to read too much into her eyes and expression as to know what she thought and felt and was planning. And open book, she was, her mother always said.

But the most interesting, beautiful, and deep book she'd seen.

She thought her mother was lying to her about that, about how 'good' a book she was to read, but she knew she was honest in how easy she was to read. She was trying though and perhaps her stay with the pirates would help her overcome that. She wouldn't be much use to them if she was constantly giving away their plans with how fidgety she could get or how her eyes would dart around or how her voice stuttered when she had to lie.

She sighed at that, she really WAS far too easy to read wasn't she?

There as at least one good thing though, one thing that her mother had gotten wrong about her. She doubted she'd be easily taken advantage of. Her mother had feared as she grew older, that she was too trusting, that she saw too much good in people.

She was NOT that foolish, not at all.

She did not trust anyone until they earned her trust and there were only two people she had ever had in her life that had earned it. Her mother and…well, Hook. She had to smile at the way he'd gained her trust, thinking on it for a moment, before shaking her head. She trusted him, pirate and all, and that was exactly why she didn't trust others easily. She had seen that the kindest person in appearance could be the most deceptive, that the one who appeared the most good could have darker intentions, and that those that appeared to be the worst sort could be the most compassionate, could be the most dedicated and fierce to protect. Everyone was a mask that they put out to the world and she had learned not to trust the mask, to not trust anyone that she couldn't get to know well enough to see past.

She trusted absolutely no one until she truly knew them so there was no way she could be taken advantage of. She didn't even really see too much good in people. Her mother had always gotten so melancholy when she'd remark on that, but she really DIDN'T see things like that. She found joy in simple things, took time to appreciate life and the world around her, she tended to learn new things with a child-like excitement more often than not. And yes, she did see good in some people, but again, she didn't trust that it was genuinely good unless she KNEW that person. She knew Hook was a pirate, she knew he'd done terrible things, killed others, pillaged and plundered and planked people, he drank and swore and could be quite lewd at times. But she also knew that he had a sense of honor to him, she knew that he cared deeply for his crew, that he loved his ship, and that, when he made a promise, he honored it. It was why she was still there.

And she knew that, even though he was a pirate, he didn't want to be a villain. There was a fine line to walk between the realm of hero and villain in the Enchanted Forest, and he tread across it carefully. And yes, he DID fall off of that line, but the fact that, at times, he dipped not just in the realm of villain but hero as well told her that he was not all evil. He hadn't started his life as an evil pirate, she knew that much, he wasn't born evil, evil wasn't born it was made, it was shaped by events that occurred in a person's life and how badly those events harmed them, how much they took from them. She didn't know exactly what had happened that had set him on the course to 'villain' but knowing he hadn't always been was enough for her.

She never tried to brush off his good deeds, the few times he did them, but to remark on them, praise him for it, because they deserved to be acknowledged just as much as his bad deeds deserved to not be forgotten. And she never forgot. She could hear the men, at times, on deck at night, regaling each other with tales about their mighty captain and all the trouble he got them into. He had as equally redeeming qualities as he had damning ones. Lately though she'd noticed a small increase in his redeemable moments.

She nearly gasped when there was a rap at the door, "Miss Analyssa!" a small squeaky voice called.

"Yes, Mr. Smee?" she sat up on her bed, her small blanket to her chest even though she was wearing a long sleeved nightgown.

"The Captain's told me to tell you to prepare, we're nearing land. He said you wished to be informed so you could join him on the run?"

She nodded even though Smee couldn't see her, "Yes, thank you Mr. Smee," she waited, hearing him start to leave, before adding, "And it's just Lyssa!"

"It's just Smee to you as well!" came his typical reply.

Of all the crew she liked Smee the best, he was kinder to her, a gentleman at heart despite his profession. He always insisted on calling her Miss Analyssa, despite the many, many, MANY times she had told him just to call her Lyssa as everyone else did (and so she retaliated by calling him Mr. Smee in return). Smee had just cast a wary glance at Hook before declining to do so. She was starting to get suspicious that Hook had said something to his men about her. They all seemed to call her 'miss' at the very least, especially after they had flubbed her name a time or two. When they were drunk they were more likely to use her name, but wrong, and call her 'Lisa' which always made her roll her eyes and correct them, even knowing they'd not remember it in the morning, that her name was pronounced 'Lih-sah' _not_ 'Lee-sah.' Still, even with the flubs, she enjoyed her name, it was much more interesting than just being called 'Ana' as she knew quite a few women with that name already.

She sighed, pulling her thin blanket aside and standing, moving to her dress as it laid over a chair. She had asked for this, even though she'd been awake for a short while, she was loathe to actually go out and do something, just wanting a lazy day, something that didn't happen much on a pirate ship that always needed constant care and attention. But it was better to go with one of the crew on a run into a nearby town than to be stuck on the ship with the rest of the men. Now that she thought about it, Hook always seemed to have her making the runs with his crew whenever they came to land. It was a simple run, mostly to a small refugee camp that had been set up once the dreaded Dark Curse had begun to break down.

Sometimes they would come to land to hunt, get some game and meet, scavenge for rum and other treats in the abandoned towns that still existed. But mostly on actual runs it was to the small camp. It seemed like what was left of the Enchanted Forest had gathered there, all trying to rebuild, save for them on the ship and another band of men that preferred to live in the forest, or so the rumors said. Today it was the camp though, they needed some nails and rope for the masts and the only place to secure more was the camp.

She shook her head, reaching out to her gown and quickly got dressed, Captain Hook was an impatient fellow and if she wanted to actually be able to stretch her legs on dry land that didn't rock back and forth, she had best hurry.

~8~

"That is a lot of fish," Lyssa remarked as she walked beside Hook, the two of them making the supply run this time, leaving the crew to the sip.

She never really understood how a pirate captain could do that, just leave his ship to his crew and trust that no one would mutiny and sail off with it. She could understand it of his crew though, the men were very loyal to him and he treated them well. She couldn't even begin to count how many times he had settled debts for his men when they got too drunk or ended up gambling too much of their coin away. He was truly a firm believer of repaying what was owed and holding true to oaths taken. Which was odd for a pirate but she knew he hadn't always been. She looked forward to the day where he might tell her more about his past, about what Killian Jones had been before he'd become the famed Captain Hook. She would find out one day, she knew that much. She felt like, little by little, he trusted her more and more each day, he shared things with her that she wouldn't have expected him to at times. One day he'd trust her enough to tell her his tale.

"Aye," Hook nodded, his hand firmly gripping the line that the fish were tied to over his shoulder, his other hand, his hook, had been taken off its support and hidden in the coin pouch hidden in the vest of his peasant attire. He didn't want people to know who he was else they'd be likely to refuse to trade with him, more than likely to try and run him from the camp or hang him for his crimes of piracy.

"More than you'd need for just rope and nails."

"Aye."

She frowned at that, he usually spoke more than that to her when they were alone, "So we're here for more than just that then?"

"Aye."

"Killian!" she huffed, "If you are not going to talk to me, tell me now and I'll stop trying to talk to you," it was better to walk in silence than an awkward almost one-sided conversation.

"You stop talking," Hook snorted at that, "That'll be the day."

Her eyes narrowed at that and she reached out, her hand in a fist, to try and punch him in the arm before she awkwardly nearly swung it at him, not quite sure if she should, making it seem like she was, for some reason, trying to swat a fly with her fist, before she ended up just poking him instead, "Be nice."

He had to laugh at that, having been watching her attempt to punch him, "Oh Lass, we need to toughen you up," he remarked, shaking his head at her in amusement, "If you can't even land a punch as light as that would have been, you'll be in dire straits before you realize it with the dangers of this land."

"I can protect myself," she muttered, walking on, but thankful he was at least talking...even if he was giving her a mocking-incredulous look, "I CAN!" she insisted.

"Barely."

She let out a frustrated huff, pursing her lips, which ended up looking more like she was pouting than she would have liked, "I'll show you one day, Killian."

"I think you had the chance already, love," he laughed, "And who was it that had to come rescue you from the ogres?"

She grumbled under her breath.

"What was that?" he leaned slightly towards her, "Oh, yes, quite right, t'was I, the dashing sea captain."

Lyssa rolled her eyes at that, "I could have gotten away from them myself."

Hook just snorted at that, but grew serious as the sounds of the camp began to reach them, "Now, if anyone were to ask you about me, you understand the cover, yes?"

She nodded, growing serious as well, "You're a blacksmith," she recited, "You lost your hand in an ogre attack."

"Aye, and the fish?" he gestured to the ones over his shoulder, ones he and his crew had caught, as they should being pirates, they had to live off something while on the seas.

"My father was a fisherman," she continued, "I caught them. I don't like lying Killian."

"Not technically a lie," he pointed out, "You said you never met your father, your mum never spoke of him. For all you know he _could_ have been a fisherman. And you did catch the fish."

"I caught one," she frowned, she should have been able to catch more, Hook had been teaching her how to fish for a while, shouldn't she be better than that by now?

"Still, you DID catch the fish," Hook smirked, "Look, you don't have to stay at my side the entire time, Lass. If you want to go wander about, go, I can handle the trade with or without you."

She gave him an odd look at that, "I'll stay with you," she said, "I've seen the camp a few times with the others, and I can help carry whatever else you're getting besides the rope and nails."

Hook almost seemed unhappy with that but shrugged, carrying on without a word, stepping past the trees and into the clearing that the camp was set up in.

They were silent as they walked along, though Lyssa smiled and nodded at a few of the refugees that glanced at them or gave them a nod here and there. Even if she was sure many of them were new and didn't truly recognize her, she was always very happy to meet new people. They seemed to be welcoming the two of them into the camp, which was reasonable as they were meant to welcome all and turn away no one, one of the reasons that the crew had kept returning to the camp, they were more than ready to trade and do business for the things they had trouble getting on their own.

Hook barely paid any mind to the others, heading right for the only blacksmith in the camp, he paused just before the small makeshift crafting area to turn and hand her four of the fish, "You get the rope," he instructed, "I'll get the metal, meet me once you've finished."

She nodded even as she rolled her eyes. She should have known he'd do that when she'd said she wouldn't wander, he'd give her a task to do that would force her to do so. It wasn't that she had a problem doing it, she just…she felt safer next to him, even with his one hand, he'd protected her in the past and he didn't seem likely to stop any time soon, not till his promise was fulfilled at least.

She didn't know why that thought of parting ways once she'd found her mother again made her heart clench painfully.

She shook her head and made her way over to one of the other crafters, a bright smile on her face as she easily traded the fish for the rope that Hook had needed, getting even a little bit extra for it as the fish were quite large. He'd be pleased with that. They were going to use the fish for the rope anyway, and now they'd have extra if something went wrong. She had to wonder, as she made her way back to where she'd left Hook, if that was one of the reasons why she went on the runs so often, she was very polite and genial to people, perhaps it made them more likely to trade easier with her. The other crew could be…tedious and intimidating at times, she was just the sweet little redhead with the bright smile.

She laughed at that, only to frown a moment later when she reached the blacksmith's area and saw Hook nowhere to be seen.

"Excuse me, sir?" she called to the blacksmith, about to ask where her companion was when the man seemed to guess at the question and pointed in another direction, "Thank you!" she chirped, turning and hurrying the way he'd indicated.

She slowed when she saw him speaking to a woman before a small little hut, clearly using his charm on her as the woman was smiling and laughing and…she felt an odd, unpleasant twisting in her stomach at how the woman was reaching out to touch his arm almost flirtatiously. She quickly made her way over, a smile on her face, "I've got the rope," she announced, gripping it tightly from where it was resting over her shoulder.

"Ooh," the woman grinned at her, "I see."

Lyssa blinked, "See what?"

"I've seen you around these parts," the woman nodded, "You come round with quite a few _men_," she gave Hook a look that made him frown and almost glower at him, as though she were implying something that he found distasteful, "She your…er, little strumpet?"

"My _wife_ actually," Hook stated easily, so easily that Lyssa's eyes widened significantly, so startled was she that she let out a small squeak when he put an arm around her waist and tugged her to his side, "My mates take great care to look after her. Thank you for your business," he gave the woman a bow of his head before turning to lead Lyssa away.

"Wife?" she nearly choked on the word.

"I needed something to get the lass to stop making eyes at me," he muttered darkly, telling her there was more to it than he was saying.

Lyssa frowned, "But you usually love when they do that."

"Aye," he agreed.

"So why was now different?" she shook her head, not understanding.

He was silent, not answering her question though his grip around her waist tightened slightly, "She was insulting your honor," he muttered, thinking about how the woman had tried to make it sound like Lyssa was some sort of lady of the night or common tavern wench and it just…it didn't sit right with him, bad form, very bad form.

"Oh," Lyssa nodded slowly, "Well…thank you for defending it?" she offered, not quite sure what to say about it.

Hook didn't seem to know what to say either as he was silent the rest of the way back to the ship.

~8~

Lyssa was quiet as she stood at the side of the ship that night, looking up at the stars, her arms resting on the railings, when Hook moved up beside her, sliding a cup towards her, "You know I hate rum," she murmured, not looking at the cup even as she felt it warm against her arm.

"Not rum, lass," he took a swig of his own drink, which WAS rum, as she looked down at the drink, lifting it to her nose to sniff it first, making him smirk, "Tea."

"You made tea for me?" she started to smile.

He let out a breath, turning to look up at the stars, "I believe I owed you an apology, for the camp."

"No you don't," she shook her head, "We got the supplies, just like we were supposed to and…"

"For announcing that you were my wife," he cut in, "I ought not have done that. I chastise my men enough times for offending you, and yet do so myself freely, and it's bad form."

Lyssa blinked, "I understood why you had to say it," she shrugged, turning to look at the starts too, "I would have thought you'd have called me your maid or sister before wife but…"

Hook cleared his throat, looking away from her so she wouldn't see the traitorous pink trying to fight its way onto his cheeks, "It was more believable," he offered.

Lyssa eyed him curiously with his head turned, a small smile tugging on her lips, it wasn't. It really wasn't. Why would a man allow so many other men to escort his wife to the refugee camp? It would make more sense if she was a maid or servant, that she was attending the crew and assisting them, or even if she was a part of the crew, or even his sister, to be seen with so many other men. But for him to call her his wife, it was more complicated.

It almost made her think that he'd just thrown out the first word he could think of when he thought of her.

She wasn't sure what to make of that.

So she too looked away, the pink on her cheeks more prominent than on his now.

"Though," he continued, letting out a frustrated breath, "I suppose it'll make it more difficult for you to do runs in the camp without me now. My apologies."

She hesitated a moment, "Why DO you send me out on so many runs?" she had to ask the question that had been niggling her ever since the woman at the camp had mentioned how often she was seen there, "I'm always out with one of the men, every time we make port or head to the Forest, me and another man but always me."

"I thought you would want a chance to get off the ship," he shrugged, "My crew and I have had…many a years experience living this life, with the gentle sway of the sea beneath us, not docking for nary a month if we need. It can't be easy for you…"

She reached out, putting a hand on his as it rested on the railing, he was rambling, he only did that around her when he was trying to cover something. For being a pirate, he was a rather bad liar, "What's the other reason?"

He glanced at her, opening his mouth as though to say that was the only reason, but the look she was giving him told him she knew there was more and that he had best tell her or she would find out some other way. And he knew his men would be les…delicate, than he might be, well, except Smee perhaps, "This is not the life for a woman, lass."

She blinked at him, "I've heard the men mention a woman, Milah," she reminded him, holding her tongue to not pry when she saw his expression darken at the mention of the name, "I know that you've had women on your crew before. Why should I be different?" she frowned, "Is it because I'm not tough enough?"

"You do have a soft heart, aye," he murmured.

"But I have a tough spirit," she countered, "I can handle this life, Killian."

"You shouldn't have to though," he let out a breath, "The life you had before this," he gestured around, "It would be like comparing pearls to rock."

Lyssa's face scrunched as she felt like she was just coming to a realization of something, "Is that why you always send me on the runs? You want me to stay there?" she shook her head, "You think I should leave?"

"I think you shouldn't stay out of obligation," he stated, "I saved your life, aye, but it was to keep my own oath."

"You would be breaking your oath if you send me away," she reminded him, "You promised to help me return to my mother. If you send me away now…"

"I would still look for a way," he told her, "But you wouldn't have to endure this life while I do so."

"I want to help, Killian," she insisted, "Not just help you keep your promise but also help YOU. I want to help your crew and help on your adventures that come up along the way. Yes, you saved me, and yes, it might have been because of your promise. But…I like it here," she shrugged, her voice growing softer, "I don't have a home anymore, not without my mother, and this…this ship, your crew, you, you feel like home. It's…it's become my home," she looked at him, "I'd like to stay."

Hook looked into her eyes, knowing from past experience that the girl was utterly terrible at hiding her true thoughts if you looked into her eyes, they were so big and expressive and clear, it was like reading her very soul through them. And all he could see as he did so was pure honesty, she meant everything she said, she wanted to stay, not out of a debt to him for helping her, but because she wanted to.

He would be a true pirate if he lied to even himself and said that he hadn't been hoping she might WANT to stay for herself (for him), but he had never been meant for the life of a pirate, he knew that, he still had the heart of a good man even if it was buried under mounds of bad deeds, and he would not lie to himself, nor his crew, and…she was a part of his crew now, wasn't she?

"Then welcome aboard," he offered, making her smile, "And," he continued, "If you're going to be an official member of the crew, then you'll need something else," he turned and picked up a small bundle at his feet she hadn't noticed before, handing it to her.

She blinked but took it, opening the cloth around it before her eyes widened, "Killian..." she breathed seeing a small folding of fabric, two of them really, one light blue and one white, enough, she was sure to make a dress. Her current gown was...wearing thin, she could be honest about it, there were holes and patches on it, it was dirty and stained with various things from the ship, she truly looked like a refugee...which was probably another reason she was often sent to the camp, she blended in.

"I take care of my crew," he told her, trying to shrug it off when he saw Lyssa shaking her head and smiling at him, tears in her eyes as they both knew that he'd traded for that fabric long before she'd said she was going to stay, that THAT was what he'd been trading with the woman that had insulted her for.

It wasn't till she'd let out a small squeal and thrown herself into his arms to hug him in her thanks that he realized his hand suddenly felt cold…because, from the moment she'd reached out to touch it, she hadn't let go.

A/N: I'm SO glad you guys are enjoying Lyssa so far ^-^ I can say, in fair warning, the next few flashback chapters will be mostly of Hook and Lyssa during the year between the curse starting to weaken and when it actually broke, to give more of a backstory to them and help set up how their relationship formed in the last year.

Just to make that clearer what I mean for timelines, I can't see a refugee camp like what Lancelot set up happening within the hours we saw between Emma breaking the curse with Henry and when she fell through the portal to the Enchanted Forest. It had to have been set up for quite a while to have the little huts and holding cells and scouting parties that it did have. So in this story, when Emma decided to stay in Storybrooke, THAT was when the curse on the Enchanted Forest broke and time started to move there again, allowing them time to gather together and start to rebuild. I've made it to be about a year for them as I honestly couldn't see the events of Season 1 happening too quickly or in just a week or month or two so I've given more time between things :) Hope that makes sense :)

I love all your theories about who Lyssa's mother is, we'll have to wait and see who though ;)

Some notes on reviews...

I'll be doing 1 chapter per episode, with a 'flashback' chapter after. Some of the flashbacks will tie into the ones we see in an episode, but others, like this, will be original or even a flashback from an earlier episode (like from season 1) :)

I'll be posting daily, at least 1 chapter :) Sometimes, on certain days, we may get 2 chapters :)

It'll definitely be a perspective thing for Lyssa in terms of Snow's 'evilness' ;)

Yup, Hook still had a thing with Milah :) We'll have to wait and see who Lyssa's related to ;) I can say that you're partially wrong about BBT ;) There will be quite a bit of romance in a sense that it IS romantic and sweet and fluffy, but Sheldon completely misses the fact that it comes across like that ;) There will be a serious sub-plot at one point, but Claire will very much stay true to the spirit of the show and there'll be an ironic twist for the Sheldon and Amy dynamic. They will happen at one point in the story, but the way Sheldon and Claire have their own relationship sort of overshadows Amy's at times. There's this sort of ongoing joke among the group about Sheldon and Claire and their relationship compared to Sheldon and Amy's that I can't say just yet without spoiling ;) No worries at all, no insult taken ;) Sheldon and Claire will be very close and it will be always come about and be seen even when Amy's in the picture for a short while :)

I can say that Snow definitely doesn't recognize Lyssa for a reason, and I can at least say she's not Leopold's ;) The reason Snow doesn't recognize Lyssa will hint/parallel a bit of how Snow was as a child, which we'll find more about later :) And Lyssa definitely knows a lot about magic, as for how she might know about it, if she was self-taught or had a tutor we'll have to wait and see ;)

Abigail could be her mother, it's very possible ;) Her mother is a character, not an OC, and was in Storybrooke, so it could be ;) I think Abigail would be well set in life though with a father that can turn things to gold :) Oh Lyssa hates Cora too, very much, she's actually quite scared of her as well, we'll have to wait and see why she doesn't like Snow though ;) I can say, at this point, she probably dislikes both women equally for quite a few reasons :)

Nope, she doesn't like Snow White at all }:)

I'm glad you caught hat little shout out to Piper ;)

Yup, I'll be doing a chapter and then a flashback :)


	3. Tallahassee

Tallahassee

Snow White, or Mary Margaret as the woman had insisted they call her, kept shooting looks at Lyssa as they walked on, Hook beside her, the two leading the way to where they could get the compass that the group needed for their travels. Lyssa, for her part, ignored the woman with a steadfast determination, refused to speak to the other women as well, to anyone other than Hook, who seemed greatly amused by that. He could still remember a time where his men had done something, he wasn't even sure what, that had her blatantly ignoring them as a result. The men had made it three days before they'd gone to her and apologized for whatever it was. It should have been something he was ashamed of, that his men were so affected by one woman refusing to speak to them that they turned into such wretches, but…by that time, even HE could admit that Lyssa had truly become one of the crew and they were like a small family. If she ever did that to him, he was sure he wouldn't last more than a day. He'd grown quite fond of her voice, found himself doing all he could to draw out a smile from her, to have that taken away would be maddening.

"Do you think they realize we CAN hear them?" Lyssa mumbled to him under her breath, only the fact that he was right beside her allowing him to hear.

He rolled his eyes at the women behind them, having insisted they walk ahead likely to be able to keep an eye on them better. If they thought they were being quiet in their talks of how this had to be a trap and that they'd be prepared for it, they were sorely mistaken. He didn't get a chance to respond though, when they crested a hill and came in sight of a large beanstalk just down it a short distance away, the green mass jutting into the sky and disappearing through the clouds.

"Let me guess," Emma sighed, "The compass is up there?"

"Oh, yeah," Hook nodded.

"So, how do we get to it?"

"Shouldn't that be obvious," Lyssa murmured, making him chuckle, it WAS rather obvious that the only way to get up the stalk was to climb it.

"It's not the climb you need to worry about," Hook called back to Emma, "It's the giant at the top," he glanced back at the women before nodding his head towards it, "Come on," and leading the way down the hill with Lyssa, no one speaking a word till they reached the stalk's base.

"It's a little freakier than I remember from the story," Emma remarked, staring up it.

"Reminds me of death," Mulan murmured.

"Encouraging," Mary Margaret deadpanned.

Lyssa just frowned at that, "It is just a plant," she shot them a look, "They're hardly 'freaky' or 'deadly.'"

Mary Margaret gave a gentle scoff at that, "Apples can be poisonous."

"Apples can be _dipped_ in poison," Lyssa corrected, "Poison apples don't just grow on trees," she held up a finger at Emma in warning when the woman went to open her mouth, realizing how that sounded, "They can be made to be poison, but they aren't naturally, someone had to make them so," she gave Mary Margaret a hard look, "A lot of things can be made into something else if the right people get involved."

Mary Margaret gave her a curious look for that, about to speak, when Hook cut in, "Well, your compass awaits. Shall we?"

"Wait," Emma shook her head, "If these beans create…portals, why not just pick one and go home? Why the compass?"

"Because there are no more beans left," Lyssa stated, "Have you any knowledge of this world at all?" she shook her head, "Have any of you?" she eyed the women.

"I've been asleep," Aurora shrugged, looking away.

"We've been gone for a few years," Emma gestured between her and Mary Margaret, even though Mary Margaret should have known this from before the Curse was cast.

"I don't deal in magic," Mulan stated, lifting her chin.

Lyssa gave her a curious eye, "And yet you carry an enchanted sword?"

Mulan's eyes widened at that, "How did you…"

"She's got a sense about her," Hook shrugged, his thumb stroking Lyssa's hand, knowing that the woman had just let slip more than she'd intended, "Damn useful to avoid traps when one can feel the magic looming."

"You can sense magic?" Mary Margaret eyed her, her mind racing, trying to think if she'd encountered anyone like that that could explain why the woman seemed so…disinclined to like her.

"What like a metal detector?"

"A what?" both Hook and Lyssa gave her an odd look.

"Never mind," Emma shook her head.

"Look," Hook sighed, "Whatever story you think you know about the giants and the magic beans, my dear, is most certainly wrong."

"There was a guy named Jack," Emma recounted, "And a cow, and something about evil giant with a treasure and a golden goose. Or harp?"

"Sounds like a lovely tale," Hook rolled his eyes, sounding bored, "But the truth's a little bit more gruesome. The giants grew the beans, but, rather than use them for good, they used them to plunder all the lands. Jack, was a man who fought a terrible war, defeating all but one of the evil giants. The beans were destroyed by the giants as they died. If they couldn't have their magic, then nobody could. It's really very bad form."

"Evil giants, who made magic portal beans? Why doesn't anyone just go up and grow some more?"

"You did hear him say 'the giant at the top,' yes?" Lyssa eyed Emma incredulously, "Do you pay such little attention normally or are you distracted?" she glanced at Mary Margaret, recalling the tales of the Curse, of what was supposed to happen to break it, that the daughter of Snow White, a girl named 'Emma' if the whispers were to be believed, would break it, which meant that the two women before her were mother and daughter, "Or is it a family trait?"

Mary Margaret opened her mouth to defend herself, but forced herself quiet, frowning at Lyssa, not sure why the woman would say such a thing and growing all the more confused by the woman's reaction and words to her.

"Aye, one giant survives," Hook nodded, "The strongest and most terrible of them all and we'll have to get past him to…"

"The magic compass," Mary Margaret sighed.

"Indeed. The treasure remains, and amongst it is the compass. Now it will guide us to your land. Cora has the means to open a portal with the wardrobe ashes, but she can't find your land without the compass. Once we get it, steal the ashes from her and we're on our way."

"How do we know you're not just using us to get the compass for Cora?" Mulan's eyes narrowed.

"Because as much as I or my lady love would love to deny it, you four _are_ far safer company," Hook told them, glancing at Lyssa a moment as the girl sighed, which was as close to agreement as he would get in this situation, "You're the…heroes after all."

"Barely," Lyssa murmured, "Heroes would not tie a man to a tree and leave him to ogres."

"We weren't really going to leave him," Mary Margaret tried to defend.

"We just wanted answers," Emma agreed.

"And now you've got them," Hook gestured at the beanstalk, "All I need is a ride back for Lyssa and I. And _I_ will swear allegiance to whomever gets us there first."

"Just you?" Emma narrowed her eyes at Lyssa for that.

"I will not swear allegiance to Snow White or her company," Lyssa stated, firm and grim.

"So you'd rather throw in with Cora?" Emma tensed, if this woman was going to betray them…

Lyssa frowned, "I would rather find my mother," she said instead, "I have no love for Cora either, I just want to see my mother again."

"And you will," Mary Margaret promised, trying to smile, "We promise, stick with us and we'll get you back to her."

Lyssa shook her head, "Forgive me if I don't take your word for it. You lie as easily as Pinocchio."

"You know August?" Emma gave her an odd look, before realizing she'd said the wrong name, "Pinocchio?"

"Everyone knows of the wooden boy," Hook rolled his eyes, knowing that Lyssa didn't know the lad personally, but it wasn't every day that a wooden puppet became a real boy.

"Why do you think I'm a liar?" Mary Margaret asked, sounding genuinely hurt to be called such a thing, "I don't lie."

"Perhaps not," Lyssa offered, "But you don't keep promises either."

Emma quickly held up her hand to stop her mother from saying anything more, knowing from how Lyssa had turned away from the group and into Hook's arms that it would only lead to a fight, whoever this girl was, clearly her mother had made some sort of promise to her and broken it and it couldn't have been that important, really, if Snow White of all people forgot about it and the girl in front of her, it wasn't as important as Henry and getting back to her son, "Look, we need to start climbing."

"Right," Hook grinned, "So…I failed to mention that the giant enchanted the beanstalk to repel intruders."

Emma gave him an unamused look for that, "Alright, so how do we get up there?"

"Cora gave him a counter spell," Lyssa murmured and Hook held up his wrist to show them a black cuff around it.

"I've got one more of these," Hook nodded, grim, looking at Lyssa with apology, "Cora was to accompany me," he was NOT happy about that part, but it had been Cora's way to ensure that he did as she asked, leaving Lyssa on the ground would mean that he would have to do as Cora requested to return to her. And even now…even now it still wouldn't be Lyssa to go with him above, "Which one of you four lovelies shall take her place?"

"Killian," Lyssa frowned.

"I will not risk you with a giant," he turned to her, "And they would not let both of us go," he reasoned logically. It was true, either it would be both of them going, which the women would not allow, or one of them…and he was NOT going to let her go face a giant without him. She had a soft heart, despite the evils she had seen of this world, but he would not have her face the evil that the giants were rumored to be. He wasn't going to just give them both cuffs either, going up the stalk with whoever was picked would be parallel to what Cora wished. He would be able to ensure that the person worked with him so that they could BOTH return below to those waiting for them.

"You would leave me here with them?" Lyssa shook her head, "Wouldn't that be just as dangerous?"

He let out a gentle sigh, "The princess could hardly lift a blade than wield it," he remarked of Aurora, "The soldier won't attack unless you do first, and Snow White, as much as you dislike her, love, she won't hurt you. Look at them," he nodded to the four women that were currently discussing who should go with him, Mulan wanting to do so as an experienced warrior able to handle the pirate, Aurora because if she failed others would have a chance, Mary Margaret as the current 'ruler,' and Emma for her son in the other realm that she would fight to get back to, "Snow White won't be the one going up, it'll be the blonde."

"Don't leave me alone with her, Killian," she turned to him, "Please."

"You know I wouldn't if I could," he reached out, curling a finger around a lock of her hair that spilled over her shoulder, "You know I'd not separate myself from you, love. But this has to be done, for you to see your mother, for me to find the Crocodile."

Lyssa looked down at that, nodding slowly as she understood what he meant and why he felt that way, "Just…be careful," she looked up at him pleadingly, "Please?"

"I'll be coming back to you, Lyssa," he promised, "On my honor."

She laughed at that, "What honor?"

He put a hand on his heart, "You wound me, love!" he had to grin when he saw the smile starting to form on her face, "I'll not be long."

She nodded, "Try not to be," she added, "Or I might kill Snow White before too long."

This time HE was the one that laughed, "You don't have a murderous bone in your body, love, sorry to tell you."

"You…" she pursed her lips in a playful pout and gave him an awkward punch on his shoulder, one that did absolutely nothing to shake him though he teasingly rocked back on his heels.

"You're getting better at that," he winked at her, making her roll her eyes, before he reached out and pulled her into his arms, knowing she needed just a little more reassurance and comfort before he'd depart, "I will come back Lyssa, whole and well."

"I know," she murmured into his chest, giving him one more squeeze, "As whole as you can be at least."

"Thanks, love," he laughed at that reminder of his missing hook, and turned to the others as Emma and Mulan walked back from where they'd been speaking off to the side, "Ladies. In this world, we are slaves to time. And ours is running out. In other words, tick tock," he glanced at Emma as she stepped closer, "So it's you then?" he didn't sound surprised by it.

"Just get on with it," Emma muttered, holding up her wrist.

Hook held up his other hand that had the second cuff on to Lyssa, allowing the girl to pull it off before she placed it around Emma's hand.

"The cuff will allow you to climb," Hook warned, "There are other dangers. Thankfully, you've got me to protect you," he was dry in that remark, "Though, I can't climb one-handed, can I?" he held up his stump of an arm to Emma before offering his open palm to her in expectation.

Emma rolled her eyes but slapped his hook onto his hand, "Don't think I'm taking my eyes off you for a second."

"I would despair if you did," he remarked, not sounding as though he were flirting with her, but more like he was agreeing that was probably a good idea to watch her back like that. He was, after all, a pirate, taking your eye off the enemy wouldn't be a good thing.

"Let's go," Emma sighed, the two of them turning to the beanstalk and starting to climb up it, Hook pausing as he got a few feet up to look at Lyssa one more time, giving her a nod before he started up the stalk again.

~8~

Hook grunted as they reached the midpoint of the stalk and glanced down at Emma just a few feet below him, "First beanstalk?" he called to her, "Well, you never forget your first. You know, most men would take your silence as off-putting, but I love a challenge."

He would not admit, not to anyone, that he'd gotten quite used to someone talking while he worked. Lyssa, for the last year, had been a constant presence on the ship and she was always talking to someone or reciting stories or making jokes (she truly had the worst taste in jokes, the cornier the better and she would always end up laughing so hard she cried at the end…which would earn an amused/polite chuckle from his men even though none of them understood what was so funny). He was a bit started to realize, though, that for centuries he'd been content to work in silence, that if his crew didn't speak in the middle of something that required his attention then it was fine, welcome even. But now he couldn't imagine the silence, he couldn't picture doing something or working on something without someone talking to him in the background, mostly in Lyssa's voice though.

"I'm concentrating," Emma grumbled.

"No," he shook his head, "You're afraid. Afraid to talk, to reveal yourself," he'd experienced both sides of that with Lyssa as well. He hadn't talked much, not about himself, his past, his brother, not for so long. He'd been afraid that if he let her into that part of his life that it would change something between them, that if she knew that much about him she'd have some sort of extra power over him. He'd been right on both counts, things had changed and she did have more of a hold over him, but…in a better way than he feared it would be. She'd been the same though, she talked all the time, but not much about her past, or even really about her mother beyond wanting to get back to her. When he'd opened up, so had she soon after. It was the trust, the trust of giving someone else ammunition against you, something from your past that they could use to hurt you, it took…a lot of trust on both sides to manage it, but he found himself relieved afterwards, sharing a burden could be liberating, "Trust me, things'll be a lot smoother if you do."

"You should be used to people not trusting you," Emma muttered, "How did you even get a girl like Lyssa to trust you let alone fall for you?"

Hook almost took offense to that, but took a moment to consider it. Lyssa, even with holding a sword at them and with her remarks against Snow White, was…innocent, in a way, soft, he could see where it would be disconcerting that a girl like that could fall in love with a pirate, "Ah, the pirate thing. Well, I don't need you to share. You're something of an open book."

"Am I?"

"Quite. Let's see, you volunteered to come up here because you were the most motivated. You need to get back to a child."

"That's not perception. That's eavesdropping."

"Ah, but you don't want to abandon him the way you were abandoned."

"Was I?"

Hook grinned at the small strain in her voice, like she was fighting to keep it neutral, and failing, "Like I said, an open book."

"How would you know that? What, did you abandon Lyssa once?"

"I won't ever abandon her," Hook shot back at her, a seriousness in his voice, "But if you must know. Her father was not around," he offered, "I have seen that look and that tone on her the rare times she mentioned him," he turned and continued to climb, "I also spent many years in Neverland, home of the Lost Boys. They all share the same look in their eyes…the look you get when you've been left alone."

"Yeah, well, my world ain't Neverland."

"But an orphan's an orphan," Hook murmured, thinking of more than just the Lost Boys, "Love has been all too rare in your life, hasn't it?" he glanced at Emma, that was where the difference came from, "You ever even been in love?"

"No," Emma muttered, "I have never been in love," before pushing herself to try and get ahead of him, ending the conversation.

~8~

The courtyard of the Giant's castle at the top of the stalk truly was a testament to just how much time had passed and the fall of the Giants, for it was a rather destitute sight to behold.

"What happened here?" Emma frowned, looking around.

"It's where the final battle was," Hook shrugged, glancing over at her and sighing, "Give me your hand."

"What?" Emma stepped back.

He nearly rolled his eyes at that, "Your hand," he gestured to the one that had blood dripping from it, "It's cut. Let me help you."

"No, no. It's fine."

"No, it's not."

"So, _now_ you're going to be a gentleman?" she gave him an incredulous look.

Hook resisted the urge to pinch his nose and reminded himself this was not Lyssa before him, this was a woman that had no idea about magic or giants or anything of their realm, "Giants can smell blood," he reminded her, reaching out to take her hand and turn it so that she was holding it flat out to him, her palm up, "And I'll have you know I'm always a gentleman."

"Yeah, probably only to Lys…AH!" she flinched as he poured something onto her hand from a flask that had been dangling from his belt, "Ow! What the hell is that?!"

"It's rum," he stated, "A bloody waste of it," he muttered, pulling a spare piece of fabric from a pouch at his side and winding it around her hand with an almost practiced ease that made Emma give him a questioning look, "Lyssa had a difficult time adapting to the ship the first month or so," he shrugged. He couldn't begin to count the amount of times that she had stumbled and tripped and fallen due to the rocking. She had more bumps and bruises and cuts in those first few months than he was sure she'd had all her life, and the amount of cuts she'd ended up with had almost worried the crew that sharks would start following them at one point or another. He had to smile at that, she'd gotten better at it, though it seemed like her room, the former sick room, had fulfilled its original purpose during that time he'd spent so much time tending to her injuries in it, "Now," he shook himself out of his thoughts, "Here's the plan, we wait for the giant to fall asleep. And when he does, we'll sneak past him into his cave. It's where the treasures are, where the compass lies."

"And then?"

"And then we run like hell."

Emma shook her head at that, "I don't have time to wait for a giant to fall asleep," she reached into the pocket of her jacket, pulling out a small pouch, "It's poppy powder," she explained, "Mulan gave it to me. We need to use it. We got to knock him out."

"Well, that's riskier," he mumbled, having leaned in to grab the edge of the cloth with his teeth so he could tie it off.

"Than waiting for a giant to fall asleep when we need him to?" she raised an eyebrow at that.

"Point taken," he nodded, eyeing her oddly a moment, "You're a tough lass. You'd make a hell of a pirate."

Emma moved to pull her hand away from him, nodding at his hand, "Who's Milah on the tattoo?" she eyed the small inking on his skin before he lowered his hand.

"Someone from long ago."

"Where is she?" Emma's eyes narrowed, "You got another girl on the side? I don't think Lyssa…"

"She's gone," he cut in with a glare, both for Emma's assumption of him and for her to bring it up in the first place, "A long time ago, as I said. Was murdered before me if you MUST know."

Emma frowned at that, hearing the same tone in his voice now that she had when he'd first mentioned why he wanted to go to Storybrooke, "Gold," she shook her head, getting the name wrong again, "Rumpelstiltskin. He took more than your hand from you, didn't he? That's why you want to kill him."

Hook's lips pursed at that, "For someone who's never been in love, you're quite perceptive, aren't you?"

Emma sighed, "Maybe I was, once," she admitted, "So…Rumpelstiltskin killed her then?"

"He did a hell of a lot more than just kill the woman I loved," Hook muttered.

Emma eyed him for that, "He hurt Lyssa too?"

But Hook was silent and merely turned away, not agreeing or disagreeing with her statement, not explaining what else the Dark One could have done to make him so angry. Emma sighed and shook her head, now wasn't the time to get fixated on this, they had a giant to deal with.

~8~

Lyssa was silent, faintly glowering, as she sat at the base of the beanstalk, leaning against it, her arms crossed, her knees to her chest, watching as Mulan paced about, frequently checking a small sundial she'd drawn in the dirt to mark the hours for their watch change. Aurura was sleeping near Mary Margaret, and that was the reason she was in the mood she was, the woman had not stopped trying to talk to her, to be chipper and cheerful and reassuring about what was going on. When that had failed to draw a positive response from her the woman had changed tactics, trying to find out who she was and how she might have wronged her in the past.

"Are you Johanna's daughter?" Mary Margaret asked.

Lyssa looked over at her but said nothing.

"It's just…" Mary Margaret stumbled over her words, "You look like her, you have the same sort of hair. But yours is a bit darker," she frowned, "But I'm sure I would know you if you were. Johanna was close to me and I would know if she had a daughter…" she bit her lip, WOULD she? She didn't even know if Johanna was married if she was being honest. And to ask a woman that might be unwed if she had a child would have been very wrong and crude a thing to do. If Lyssa was her daughter, it would make sense that Johanna didn't broadcast that about if she was unwed.

When Lyssa didn't speak still, she tried a different question, "How do you know me then?" she eyed the girl, "Do you actually know me or do you know stories of me? Because I assure you some of them are rather exaggerated," she tried to smile, but Lyssa just shook her head at her as though in disbelief.

"You truly don't recognize me," Lyssa mumbled.

"I'm…I'm afraid I don't," Mary Margaret gave her an apologetic look, "If I did something in the past that upset you or offended you, I am deeply sorry…"

"That's just…" she trailed off, trying to think of the word, "Just…more lies!" she huffed, "How can you apologize for something and actually MEAN it if you don't even know what you've done?"

"Then why don't you tell me?" Mary Margaret offered, "Tell me what I did and I'll make amends."

"To be honest, Snow White, the fact that you do not recognize me makes me all the angrier with you, so please, stop."

Mary Margaret opened her mouth to argue more when Aurora started thrash in her sleep, crying out from a nightmare and she turned to the girl instead, waking her quickly, "Hey. Aurora?" she pulled the princess into her arms, "It was just a dream. It was just a dream."

"It was horrible," Aurora breathed.

"Why don't you tell me about it?" Mary Margaret asked her, "Do you want to tell me about it?" she glanced over at Lyssa and Mulan looking on, "Come on, let's stand," she turned the girl away, leading her off with a gentle, "Tell me."

"Why do you dislike Snow White?" Mulan asked once they were far enough away, "HAS she wronged you?"

"She has wronged, and caused wrong, to more people than she will ever admit," Lyssa sighed, leaning her head back against the beanstalk, "Snow White isn't as pure and good as everyone thinks she is."

Mulan eyed her for a moment, it was...odd, in a way, to hear her speak like that, like she had some sort of knowledge they didn't. Her first impression of the girl who had cried out that they were being 'mean' didn't match the young woman sitting there, speaking with words so old and eyes so full of reality. She would have to be careful around this girl, she was far more than she seemed and she didn't like that.

~8~

Hook would not have believed Emma's plan would work, if he had not lived through it and seen it happen. There had been a few blips in getting the poppy powder at the giant, namely a miscalculation in how tall the bloke was, but they'd managed it in the end, and now there they were, standing in the treasure room, looking at the piles of gold coin and cold objects and jewels littered around, "They hoarded all of their greatest stolen treasures in here. Piles of jewels, and every room filled with coins."

"Let's get to it," Emma reminded him, "The compass."

"What's your rush?" Hook asked absently as he eyed a small pile of jewels, picking one up to look at before tossing it away.

"How long do you think magic knockout powder lasts?"

"I have no clue."

"_That's_ my rush."

"Too right, lass," he sighed, nodding at that, "Come. Everything we need is right in front of us," he stepped further into the room, the two of them wandering into the middle of it in search of the compass.

"They kill all the giant housekeepers, too?" Emma muttered after a moment, "How we going to find a compass in this mess?"

"By looking," he suggested, "Start searching," he paused by a small pile of gold coin, something not gold in color jumping out at him from atop it, "I wonder how much treasure we could carry down the beanstalk," he murmured, reaching out to a small pendant made of a light blue gem, what appeared to be aquamarine, "In addition to the compass, of course," he turned to Emma, subtly sliding the pendant into his pocket in the process, when he spotted something over her shoulder and walked over to it, a skeleton laying in the middle of the floor, a sword just out if its reach that was inscribed with 'Jack' on the blade.

"What the hell…" Emma breathed.

"That would be Jack."

"As in Jack…"

"The giant killer."

"With that toothpick?" Emma gestured at the sword, she frowned, "Is it magic too?"

"I can't say, lass, I'm not Lyssa," he remarked, "I would assume it packs quite a wallop though," he turned, moving to head further into the room, when Emma reached out and grabbed him, pulling him back, almost into her arms with a cry of 'whoa!,' "As much as I'm flattered," he began dryly, "But I'm taken lass."

"It's a trip wire," Emma huffed, letting go of him and pointing to the floor where a thin wire was running across it, "Quite a security system," she followed the line of it up to a cage that was dangling above it.

"Well, that's a plausible excuse for grabbing me," he agreed, "But next time fair warning would be welcome."

"I would have thought a pirate would be less…"

"Honorable?" he finished for her, "I may be a pirate, but I'm a man as well, and men DO have honor."

"Yeah, right," she scoffed at that, bitterness seeping into her voice, "Let's find the compass and go home," she turned to stalk into the room, careful to step over the wire.

"Give me a boost would you, lass?" Hook called from beside a giant-sized chair, nodding at it.

"So I can't see what you're pocketing?" she shook her head, "No way. You give me a boost."

"Try something new, darling. It's called trust."

"I don't trust as easily as your girlfriend," she countered.

Hook actually laughed at that, "If you think she trusts easily then we're not talking about the same girl. For me to earn her trust must mean something," he gave her a look.

Emma rolled her eyes, "We do it side by side and fast. Who knows how long before the…" she was cut off suddenly by the sound of thumping in the distance, footsteps.

"Someone's up," Hook stiffened, "Quickly," he backed away, trying to find cover, "Get under something!" he ran for a small jewelry box that was turned on its side, but before he could reach it the Giant had burst into the room, the force of his stomping feet causing stone and debris to fall from the ceiling and right on top of him…

~8~

Hook coughed slightly as he slowly came to, feeling the debris that had fallen on him shifting as Emma worked to free him from beneath it, "Hook!"

"You are bloody brilliant," he muttered to the woman in thanks for freeing him, wincing even as he was pulled to his feet.

"Come on," Emma turned, leading him across the room, the giant nowhere to be seen, and towards a hole in the wall that was just big enough for them to slip out of.

"Amazing," he grinned, seeing the exit ahead, as well as the compass clutched in Emma's hand, "May I see it? The compass," he gestured at it. Emma paused and slowly held it up for him to see, "It's more beautiful than legend," he didn't comment when Emma put it back in her pocket, "Come," he agreed, "Let's go," he held out a hand to gesture to the exit…but Emma grabbed it and, before he could even blink, had shackled him to the wall, a chain leading from it to the manacle, something that clearly had to have been placed there while he was unconscious, "What are you doing?!" he struggled against it, trying to free himself, "What are you doing?"

"Hook, I…I…I can't…" Emma shook her head.

"Emma, look at me," he glared at her, his heart racing at what this could mean, that she was going to leave him there, "Have I told you a lie? I brought you here. I risked my own safety to help you. I left my love on the ground to help you. The compass is in your hand. Why do this to me now?"

"I can't take a chance that I'm wrong about you," Emma swallowed, straightening her spine, "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" he scoffed, "You're sorry?! I got you here! I got you the compass!"

"_I_ got the compass."

"Well, you're just going to leave me here to die?" he sneered at her, "Have that beast to eat me, to crush my bones? Lyssa was right, you are no hero."

"He's not a beast," Emma defended, "And you're not going to die. I just need a head start, that's all."

"A head start to do what?" he tried to take a threatening step towards her, "If you harm a hair on her head…"

"Leverage," Emma stated, "She stays with us. You try to stop us and…"

"And what?" his lip curled in a snarl, if she dared harm Lyssa…Cora would be the least of their worries.

"Just…stay out of our way," was all Emma said before turning and hurrying out the hole in the wall.

"Swan!" Hook shouted, starting to smash his hook against the manacle, trying to break free, not about to let her try and use Lyssa as bait or leverage or insurance, "Swan! Swan!"

But it was too late, Emma was gone…and he was trapped.

~8~

Lyssa had moved only to sit across from the stalk, looking up it, waiting to see if she could spot Hook and Emma coming down it, still trying to ignore Mary Margaret who, for the most part, was sitting there in silence, but staring at her with a small frown of concentration, likely trying to place her. She had given away enough for the woman to know that she_ should_ be familiar to the woman, and the fact that she wasn't was offending. She was sure she was going through a list of everyone she knew to try and place her, not that she should need to, if she didn't recognize her now, she likely wouldn't till it was spelled out for her.

She looked over, away from the stalk, only when Mulan pulled her sword and made her way for it.

"Whoa, wait!" Mary Margaret jumped to her feet, startling Aurora awake as the girl had been slumbering nearby, "What are you doing?!"

"Just stay back," Mulan held up her hand to stop her, "Emma gave me ten hours."

"No, no, no!" Mary Margaret threw up her hands when Mulan moved to grip her sword more.

"What, you're just going to leave her to die?" Aurora frowned.

"Ten hours," Mulan stated, "She may already be dead."

"No, she's not," Lyssa stood, "Killian went with her, he'll protect her."

"He's a pirate!"

"He's still a good man," Lyssa defended, he was trying to be and that was what mattered.

And even if he wasn't, he promised he would come back down to her. It wasn't like he could take on three other angry women if Emma failed to return, it wasn't like they'd believe him if he even told the truth of why Emma wasn't with him if something HAD happened to her. He would do all he could to see Emma returned. Especially for her, because she didn't doubt that Snow White would lash out at HER if Hook failed to return with her daughter. SHE would be used against him if Emma wasn't returned safely. He knew that no one in their little group would allow either of them to continue on the quest to make it to this Storybrooke place without Emma.

"No, stop…" Aurora began when Mulan struck out at the stalk, sending a surge of magic up it.

"No!" Mary Margaret cried when Mulan tried another blow, lunching at Mulan and tackling her to the ground, shouting for her to stop. Lyssa ignored them fighting to hurry to the sword and pull it from the stalk, tossing it away when a voice called above her.

"Stop!"

Lyssa stumbled back, seeing Emma jump down from a few feet up.

"Emma!" Mary Margaret scrambled to her feet and ran to the woman, hugging her tightly, "You ok?"

"Two earthquakes and a jump from a beanstalk. I think my brain's still rattling around a little."

"I did what she ordered, nothing more than that," Mulan defended to Mary Margaret before turning to Emma, "Did you get it?"

"Yeah," Emma nodded.

"Where is Killian?" Lyssa whispered, trying to look up the stalk and then to Emma, "Where is he?!"

Emma glanced at Mulan over Lyssa's shoulder, her eyes flickering to the side as she moved before the woman, "He's detained."

"What do you mean detained?!" Lyssa shook her head, "What did you do to him!?"

"He's fine," Emma stated, "We got ten hours before he follows us."

"What?" Mary Margaret frowned, looking between her and Lyssa, "How?"

"I got a friend looking after him till then. So grab your stuff, we gotta go."

"No!" Lyssa argued, "No we can't just leave him! I can't…I won't…"

"You don't have a choice," Emma's voice grew hard, "The only way he leaves us alone…if we have something against him."

Lyssa's breath hitched at that, "I won't let you use me against him! You're supposed to be the heroes, you don't do things like this!"

That was the last thing she could remember before a pain stung her in the back of the head and she fell to the ground, catching sight of Mulan standing above her with the hilt of her sword in hand before her world went dark…

A/N: I feel like, if Emma was that determined that she'd chain up Hook when he actually seemed to be helping her, it could be reasoned that she'd take extra measures to ensure that Hook not try to sabotage them in retaliation for what she did. Keeping Lyssa with them would be one way to make sure Hook didn't go running to Cora...at least in her mind }:) Never trust a Pirate to do what you think though, right? }:)

Some notes on reviews...

Snow seems to think it might be Johanna too ;) They do appear similar in a way, and Snow would have reasons to not know that the woman had a daughter, but we'll have to wait and see ;)

It would definitely be hard to hide a pregnancy from Cora, though if Regina was a 'very good girl' and didn't give her mother reason to look at her or spend time with her it might be possible...perhaps a trip with her father to visit his relatives and leave her mother behind to mind the manor...hmm...possible ;) We'll have to wait and see :)

The Hook from the prior chapter was at a point where he was starting to fall for Lyssa, but also trying not to let go of Milah or admit he was, so he falls back on his 'good/bad form' bit a lot to justify why he does the things he does for her and why he acts/reacts like that, he doesn't want to admit it's more than just being a 'gentleman' around her :) Smee will actually remark on that in a future flashback ;)


	4. Damsel in Distress

**IMPORTANT NOTE PLEASE READ! STORIES ARE ON PAUSE!**

I had posted on my tumblr, around the 4th of February, that I'd gotten severe food poisoning from my brother's birthday dinner and I did (was nearly hospitalized for it). It took about a week to feel better but right around then, on Valentine's Day, our dog wasn't well and we found out he needed a surgery we struggled to find money to afford. We finally managed it and he was set for surgery on March 2nd...but he passed an hour before it was supposed to happen :'( Instead of bringing him home to heal, my brother had to go and bring him home in a little box :'(

On top of that, my father injured himself on the 15th of February and, in doing tests to see what was wrong...

The doctors found cancer :'(

We've gotten results back from tests done on odd masses that had been discovered and the doctors confirmed it was cancer, my father began Chemo treatment the same day our dog passed and it's going to have an impact on the stories and updates.

I hate to do this, I really do, because this story has only just started (and my one Doctor Who series is nearly halfway done), but all the stories will be on hold for the next 2ish months. The treatment is very intensive and aggressive and is set to last through the middle of May. By then we'll be finding out whether he might need more treatment or what his radiation regiment will be. Overall, if all goes well, he'll be completely finished with the intensive part of his treatment by the end of May.

And this is why the stories will have to be on hold. I've yet to find a permanent, full-time job at the moment, which means, so that we don't financially strap our family more than it already is by taking my mother/brother/sister away from their jobs as well, I'm be the one taking my father to his treatments most days for 8-9 hours a day and caring for him every day after and between that. This is all until either the treatments are over or I find a full-time job, which means little time to edit or write or answer reviews. My father/family will always come first above my writing and I have to do this for my father.

I am very sorry to put the story on hold. It WILL be completed, I can promise you that, it will just have to be paused till June, at the latest, when the worst should be over. It hasn't been a good time from the moment he hurt his back to now. I tried very hard to get this chapter up, to put this note up so that you would all know what was going on as I know some readers don't check my tumblr (and even then, I've had such little time that I couldn't even get on THAT site to do much of a notice there either). It's been non-stop tests and scans and surgeries and biopsies and doctors and treatments and pills and so many other things that have just left me exhausted. My mother has finally gotten a day off, today, and I wanted to take the time to finally get this up so that you all know what to expect. I fully intend to resume the stories on June 1st at the latest, though I have my fingers crossed for earlier than that, but I wanted to give warning here that there will be a significant lag in the updates :(

I'm going to try and be on tumblr more. I'll be spending most of the day answering asks from my inbox and stocking up my queue so that at least there's some activity on the site. I'll try to find an hour somewhere in my day to check tumblr and maybe even try to make a dent in my inbox here on this site as well. I'll be putting the tumblr takeovers (Mac, Professor, and Piper) on hold till June. I will, however, be adding sneak peeks to my queue to try and make up, in some small way, my lack of activity recently and the lag in the story updates. I'll be posting, every day, a 1-line quote from the stories for this year. We'll have a quote from every episode left for my Doctor Who series for Evy, every episode of Angel, and 1 quote from each series of TL5. Then we'll have 1 quote from each series/season/movie for other stories I have planned for 2015 (Lyssa &amp; Piper for OUAT, Big Bang Theory, Thor/Athena, Dracula Untold, LotR, Forever, Captain America, Scorpion, Bones/OC for Star Trek, Firefly, the Sorcerer's Apprentice). And finish off with 1 quote from each episode of Doctor Who's Mac and the Judge for Series 8, and even a quote from the Professor's AU series (Rewritten).

I really am sorry to put the stories on hold, but my family has to come first for the next few months especially :'(

~8~

Damsel in Distress

Mullins laughed as he walked along the forest with Lyssa, the girl chattering away about the different birds that were fluttering and flittering between the trees, identifying them just based on their sounds of songs for the ones they couldn't quite see and from their appearance for the ones they could. It wasn't a skill that many pirates had in their stock, they dealt with sea birds enough, some other more common ones, but the random birds of the forest were things that he, personally, as well as many of the crew were unfamiliar with. He had to wonder where she had learned so much about the different birds but it wasn't that important of a question to ask so he remained silent. He knew, or he could guess, that Lyssa was still trying to fit in among the crew and it was harder for the girl. She wasn't the first to sail with them, but, well, Milah was something else. She'd adapted to the life of a pirate much quicker than Lyssa was.

But, then again, that could very well be their captain's fault. None of the crew were entirely sure if Lyssa would be staying with them, for how long. Milah, they knew, was a permanent member of the crew, she wasn't likely to leave them, the pirate life had become her only life from the moment she joined them. Lyssa, they still treated her as though she were a guest or a paying passenger, not someone that would be staying with them very long. The crew had been informed that she would remain with them for the time being, but they didn't know what that period would be. Was there truly a point to teach her the pirate way of life when she might very well leave at the next port? She had been with them for a while now though, she was trying to adapt to the sea life, she asked questions and she tried to help them, but she didn't know much about what it was like to live on a ship, especially surrounded by a bunch of men. She did, however, know quite a bit about birds and small villages, markets and bartering and such.

He could understand why she was often taken into the small refugee camps for trading. Oh, the captain would say that it was to offer her a chance to stretch her legs or to give her the chance to leave if she wanted, but he knew it was more for the deals that she was able to secure. She was a sweet girl, innocent in a way that was surprising given her past, more than a bit naïve (though he had a suspicion that she acted that bit of her personality up). She really had a sweetness about her that made others want to give her just a smidge more, or lower the prices slightly. They always got a better deal when she just accompanied them to trade.

Right now, however, trade wasn't what they were heading to. They were on the edge of the Enchanted Forest, checking traps that they'd set while the Jolly Roger was anchored away. There had been a terrible storm a few days ago, one of the masts had taken a great deal of damage and the crew had managed to guide the ship close enough to land to weigh anchor and near enough to the forest to be able to cut a tree or two to use for repairs. It also meant that they'd be on dry land long enough to set some traps and get some actual meat instead of surviving on fish as they'd been doing for a while now.

The Captain, Hook, had stayed behind to oversee the repairs and had sent him and Lyssa out to check on the traps and bring back all that they might have caught for preparations. The mast was well under way of being repaired and they might be able to set off by nightfall or early morning if all went well. He should have been there to help the rest of the crew, but he knew (as well as the captain had) that he wouldn't have been much use. He was the youngest of the crew, they all looked at him as though that made him useless or incompetent. So when Lyssa suggested that HE check the traps and that she accompany him, Hook had agreed. It both gave them a reason to not utilize his many (lacking) skills, but also did give him something to do so he wouldn't complain about it the entire time. There wasn't much one could do to muck up checking traps and slinging up a wild turkey or a fox or something like that. And Lyssa was good company, always smiling even if Hook had warned him that he should try and keep her away from actually SEEING the traps if they ended up with an animal caught in them.

Hook had joked that Lyssa would likely be affected by the sight of the animals like that, some of the men had uttered that she'd weep for the poor little lives, that she was too soft and delicate to handle it. Starkey, one of the older men, had even gone so far as to insinuate that she ought to stay with them, else she faint at the sight of blood and death that would be clouding around the animals.

Lyssa had stomped on his foot for that before promptly turning on her heel and striding off with her nose in the air, which had made all of them laugh to see the larger man hopping on one foot and clutching the other.

Sometimes, when she did things like that, it truly showed her age and reminded them all of just how old they really were. Nearly three centuries had gone by, due in large part to their time around Neverland, but yet they all looked the same ages they'd been when they'd set off on their adventures. Lyssa was new, very new, and very young, compared to them, relatively speaking of course. HE looked younger than her at 19, the woman being only 21, though she claimed she would be a year older within just the next month. If he were being honest though, it had made them all a bit more protective of her than they'd ever been of Milah. It was just…Lyssa was truly so sweet to all of them, so kind and caring, and so young. They all found themselves just wanting to keep her safe.

And, even though they couldn't quite see her living as a pirate, still, they'd started to find they wanted to keep her with them as well. Hook hadn't made any proclamations about her stay with them becoming permanent, but they wouldn't have complained if she did. Sure, some men might publically grouch about it, but privately he was sure they'd be a little happy to have her around longer. She was endearing without trying.

He shook his head from his thoughts as he realized they were approaching the first trap. He could already see a rather large fox had been caught up in it from the red of its fur and glanced at Lyssa. He actually doubted that she'd be that affected by the sight of a dead animal, not to the point the men had joked about, not given her past. Living with a bunch of 'brutal pirates' as well would likely harden her to the sight of blood and death, not that she wasn't already quite desensitized to things like that. And even then, despite that, Lyssa fell quiet as they approached the fox and trap.

"I'll just…get this done, then," Mullins murmured as he slowly made his way closer to the trap.

"I can help," Lyssa shook her head, offering him a small smile, "Have to pull my weight don't I?"

"You stomped on Starkey's foot, gave us all a good laugh, I'd say you earned your keep for another few weeks with that," he laughed, entertainment had to count for something.

"I don't think Killian would agree with that," Lyssa's smile grew a bit wider as she picked up the edges of her skirt and moved up the small little hill that had the trap atop it.

Mullins snorted at that, she was the only one among them that could get away with calling the captain Killian. Some of them, the older men especially, might be able to sneak by with calling him Jones, but most of them had fallen to the habit of calling him by the moniker most others had taken up, Captain Hook. It helped intimidate others a bit, a name like Hook, far more than 'Killian' did. Lyssa, if his memory served proper, had accidently called him Killian once and, when Hook hadn't corrected her, had continued to call him that. The girl, for all her bravado with the crew and even some of her backbone with Hook, had been rather intimidated by him at first. It had taken a while but she'd gotten used to them all, more confident in talking to them.

"Yeah, probably not," he agreed, nudging her arm, "If you can just hold the trap open, I'll take care of the fox."

Lyssa nodded and they got to work.

~8~

"I'll tell you something," Mullins smiled as he and Lyssa began to walk back from the last trap, "You're made of tougher stuff than the crew thinks."

Lyssa gave him an amused look at that, "Well, considering they don't seem to believe I'm made of much by way of toughness, that doesn't really mean much."

Mullins had to nod, that was true. They all knew about some of the things Lyssa had endured in her life, could guess at even more than that. If anything, they should think her as strong of will as Snow White was, probably even stronger than Hook himself by way of enduring hardships. But she really was just so darn sweet and kind that they forgot it easily enough and thought her too soft instead. He shuffled a bit, putting the bag of their collections more firmly over his shoulder, it was fairly full. Nearly every trap but two had some sort of animal in it, whether it was a fox or a wild goose, one even had a hog in it. They would eat well for the next few months if they tended to the meat properly when they got back to the ship.

"Shall I tell them you wrestled the hog down yourself?" he smirked at her, waggling his eyebrows in jest.

"The hog was already dead," she pointed out.

"I won't say so if you don't."

She laughed, "No, no, I don't think they'd believe that."

"Well you never know," he shrugged, "You're a woman of many talents and…"

Whatever he was about to say was cut off when a fierce growl sounded just before them, a far too short a distance away yet far enough where they couldn't quite see what had made it.

"That sounded like…" Lyssa swallowed hard, losing her breath at the sound.

They could hear noises like that from the ship, late at night, when it was nearer to the land. The growls and snarls and noises that echoed out into the night, sometimes accompanied by screams of innocent victims. It was a noise that had had her pressing a pillow to both her ears and squeezing her eyes shut tight to try and block it out late in the darkness. It was a sound that could chill even the infamous Captain Hook's blood to hear even being on the Jolly Roger and a safe distance away from the sources of the noise.

Mullins nodded, "Ogres."

Neither of them had a moment to react, to grab hands or turn tail and run before the ground beneath them started to shake with the thumping of footsteps racing for them. They could see it now, the trees being shoved aside and the Ogre starting to become visible through the trunks and green bushes.

"RUN!" Mullins cried, turning and shoving Lyssa on, pushing her ahead of him as they tried to outrun the Ogre.

"Drop the bag!" Lyssa called, looking over her shoulder at him to see Mullins huffing and panting, struggling to keep running while holding onto the large sack that held the meat.

"Not on your life!" he nearly growled, shaking his head fiercely, not about to let the bag go. He'd only do that over his own cold, lifeless body if he had anything to say about it. He'd been assigned to bring back the animals and he was going to do it.

"On YOUR life!" she tried once more to get him to just let it go so that they could get out of there.

Ogres were blind, they hunted largely on their other senses. It would have been better if they'd stopped shouting to each other as that would be the biggest clue for the Ogres to use to track them, they could hear them talking. But, in the same breath, their sense of smell was very strong as well and the animals weren't exactly smelling like flowers in springtime. If Mullins didn't drop the bag, even if they were entirely silent, the Ogres would likely still be able to track them down.

"Oi, just…"

"Mullins!" Lyssa screamed as the man himself was thrown through the air, off to the side, by a vicious swipe of the Ogre's large club that it was gripping in its hand. She wanted to stay, to wait a moment to see if he might get up, if he might still be alive, but the Ogre let out a fierce roar and charged at her, now sure where she was by her shout just before.

She tried to dart past it, to run for Mullins and see if there was anything she could do that would help him, if there was still time to do anything like that, but just as she turned, the Ogre reached out and grabbed her, lifting her into the air, its grip tightening on her as she struggled to get out of its hold.

But it was useless, the Ogre was too large and too strong and she found herself gasping more than struggling in no time at all, her vision starting to black out the tighter the Ogre gripped her, cutting off her air until her world went entirely dark.

~8~

To say Lyssa was shocked when she came to consciousness to see that she was still alive and hadn't been eaten by the Ogres would be quite the understatement. To say that she was surprised to find that she was trapped in a crude wooden cage would be another one.

She woke suddenly with a gasp, nearly shooting up to a seated position, or she would have if there had been room enough to do so. At most, the small wooden cage she was trapped in was half her height, if that, and twice as long as she was. She had to crouch down, rolling onto her knees to be able to move at all and gripped the wooden beams, looking through the makeshift bars to see that night had fallen and there wasn't just one Ogre but three. They were standing a short distance away from the cage, two of them seemed to be fighting or wrestling while the third seemed to be cheering (roaring) at them. She doubted it was trying to stop the other two given that it was beating its chest and not stepping towards the others in an attempt to break them up. She really hoped they weren't fighting over who would get to eat her first. She looked around her, trying to see if there was anything that she could do or use to get out of there.

But it was dark, there was no fire to light the way, no moon in the sky. But as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could see that there were large boulders around her and…one right on top of her, locking her into the cage. Well, that was clever, for an Ogre. She knew that the creatures were at least slightly intelligent, they wore a sort of clothing, they were able to hunt based on other senses, they could make their own weapons and were smart enough to use them, and they must have had some way to store their meals to eat for later, which would explain the cage.

She let out a small, soft huff of breath that blew an errant strand of her red hair from her face. She was dirty, she realized now, her clothing was covered in dirt, her hair was coming undone from the small twist she'd had it in earlier, and her ribs hurt something fierce. They were probably bruised from the grip of the Ogre and she was sure, if her adrenaline wasn't racing through her so much at her plight, she'd feel it that much more.

She tested the wooden bars, trying to shake them as quietly as she could. Whatever the Ogres were doing, it was distracting them for the moment and giving her more time to try and work out a way to get out of there. The bars, unfortunately, were quite sturdy and thick, not something she'd be able to break through with a mere kick of her foot and they were also quite close together so she wouldn't be able to just squeeze her way through it. She bit her lip, thinking about something she might be able to do to get out of there, but to do so…it would be noisy, it would be very noisy and then it would be only seconds before the Ogres charged at her again.

She was never good in situations like that, where it was reaction, where it was so much pressure on her to do something. She froze, she tensed, she hesitated. She was better when she had time, when she could concentrate, when there wasn't a heart pounding in her ear or a threat before her or a danger around. She was really and truly horrible when it came to being under pressure. She never had been in the past, not much, and when she was well…it brought up bad memories. The most pressured she'd ever been in her entire life had been when she was just 3 years old and ever since then she had never been able to deal with it well. It had stuck with her through the rest of her life and every time she was pressured since then, it just made her feel like that helpless 3 year old again, it reminded her of all that had happened during that point and she just…couldn't deal with that.

She took a deep breath, nodding to herself as she made her decision, before closing her eyes, trying to concentrate on the situation, trying to focus on what she would have to do and on nothing but that. If she could visualize it, she could do it, she was sure she could. She just…had to block out the sounds of the Ogres thrashing each other, she had to block out the stench of them, she had to block out the…sound of her name?

Her eyes shot open at that and she scrambled to twist inside the cage, turning to the back of it to see Hook! He was hiding behind a tree in the darkness, crouched down and hissing her name at her as quietly as he could so that the Ogres wouldn't hear him.

"Killian!" she breathed, glancing over her shoulder to make sure that the Ogres were still occupied before she focused on the man once more, he was ducked down low and making his way to her.

He held a finger to his lips as she opened her mouth to speak again, his blue eyes visible in the darkness, a seriousness in them as he silently told her not to say another word. She swallowed hard but nodded, reaching up to run her forefinger and thumb along her mouth in a sealing motion. He rolled his eyes at that but reached out with his hook to wrap it around one of the bars, holding up a saw in his other hand that he'd taken from a bag she hadn't seen him wearing till just then. He put the saw against the bar he was holding and nodded past her at the Ogres.

She frowned at that, giving him a confused look but all he could do was nod again, more forcefully. She shook her head, her expression growing even more confused. Hook hung his head a moment, shaking it in exasperation, before looking at her once more, 'Lookout!' he mouthed at her.

"Oh!" she nodded, giving him a sheepish smile before scuttling to the other side of the cage, watching the Ogres to make sure they were still occupied.

She tensed when she heard him starting to saw at the beams behind her, praying that the Ogres wouldn't hear it over the sounds of their grunting and groaning and roaring and the blows they were dealing each other. Thankfully luck seemed to be on their side as the Ogres were more focused on continuing their small battle than to notice or hear what was happening to their wooden cage.

She glanced back a few moments later when she heard the sawing suddenly stop to see that Hook was just repositioning the saw to the base of the beam, the top part already cut through. He gave her as reassuring a nod as he could before getting to work on that last piece. She swallowed and turned to the Ogres once more, hoping their luck would hold out just a little longer, just long enough for them to get the wooden beam down and get her out of there.

A soft whistle behind her drew her attention back to Hook to see him quietly pull the beam out, leaning against the cage to muffle the noise of it. He held a hand out to her through the opening of the cage, grasping her hand and tugging her towards it, helping her out into the open air and to freedom. He held up a finger, indicating for her to wait a moment as she tried to dash off towards the woods.

A moment later a gunshot rang out in the distant darkness.

Lyssa jumped, whipping around in time to see the Ogres take off in that direction when she felt her hand being tugged as Hook led her off through the trees and bushes in the opposite direction of the sound.

"What was that?" she gasped when Hook finally began to slow their escape, sure that the Ogres were far enough away to not be a danger to them and sure that they were near enough to the ship to be able to get there if they had to run.

"Smee," Hook told her.

Lyssa blinked, "I don't…"

"We found Mullins' body," he cut in, explaining more.

Lyssa flinched at that, not just the angry tone of his voice, but the fact that he'd said 'body' instead of Mullins, the boy had been killed in the blow that the Ogre had dealt him.

"When you failed to return by sunset, we set off in search of you," Hook continued, stepping down a small incline over a log, gripping her hand tighter to help her down after him, "We found the boy, recovered the animals, but you were nowhere to be seen. However," he paused, glancing to the side, falling quiet as he listened for anything that might be lingering in the darkness, before nodding to himself, satisfied it was safe, and starting to walk again, "There were rather unique and rather large tracks to follow to the Ogre camp. We scouted it out, saw you in the cage and organized a plan of attack."

"It wasn't much of an attack," she tried to lighten the mood though she could tell he was still very tense and on edge, "There was just you and…hold on, you said Smee was out there?" she frowned, "Was he bait? Did you use him as bait, Killian?"

"Aye," he nodded, "But," he added when she tried to reprimand him for that, "He volunteered. He wanted to help free you. I would get you out, he and the other men would cause a distraction, some sort of commotion in the distance to lure the brutes away."

"He and the men?" she repeated, "So he's ok? He's safe and with the other men?"

"Aye."

"Oh," she blinked, "Good."

She bit her lip as they continued to walk through the darkness, glancing down at Hook's hand as it remained firmly gripping her own, though it was tight, his hold on her was far more comforting than the Ogres. There was something else she wanted to ask, but she wasn't sure if she should. She was still a guest on his ship and she didn't want to say anything to jeopardize that, but it was niggling at her and niggling at her and…

"Why did you save me?" she asked, unable to hold it in any longer.

Hook stopped and just turned to look at her.

"I'm not one of your crew," she added quickly, "I…Mullins is gone because of me. You put your men in danger, yourself in danger, to try and get me away from the Ogres…when you didn't have to. I don't even think half your men truly like me and…"

"While you sail on my boat, I count you among my crew," Hook cut in, "My men were in no more danger than they always are whenever we set out on land. And I did have to free you."

"Why?" she shook her head.

"I promised to return you to your mother," he answered after a moment of just staring at her. She would have sworn that he was struggling to say something before he settled on that but she couldn't be sure, "I may be a pirate, love, but I have a code. We had an accord and I will see it through," he smirked, "After all, it benefits both of us in the end."

She nodded slowly at that, "I'm…I'm sorry about Mullins," she murmured, "I should have done something to protect him, to…to do something to help him but…"

"That's not on you lass," he shook his head, turning to walk on, "If anything, Mullins should have been protecting you."

"He tried to," she offered, not wanting him to be angry or disappointed in the boy's last moments of life, "He wanted to make you proud, and he tried to get me away."

Hook was silent. She could almost guess he was muttering to himself that Mullins hadn't done a good job of either if she'd gotten captured and he'd gotten killed.

But, in the end, he merely said, "Then he did as fair a job as he could. We'll see he has a proper burial at sea for it."

Lyssa was quiet another minute or two, starting to get the feeling that Hook didn't want to speak anymore, and she was sure he didn't want to. He'd just lost one of his men and had to put the rest in danger, for her. He couldn't be very happy at the moment if his grip on her hand was anything to go by. It was growing tighter and tighter as the minutes went by. She wasn't sure she'd be welcome at the burial as well, she wanted to ask, but it didn't seem a proper thing to do at the moment. Did he blame her for Mullins' death? It didn't seem like it, but SHE felt guilty enough for the two of them. Would the crew blame her? Would they want her there? They'd likely expect her to cry, they'd expect her to be a mess when she saw his body, she was sure. But she'd seen a dead body before, she'd seen executions and murder and punishments. It would be painful because it was Mullins and he was a nice boy, but she wouldn't sob over it, she would be sad, but tears didn't always come, not for everyone. If the entire crew had been struck down, she was sure she'd be affected much more, a body or two she could handle, but anything more? She wasn't sure.

And then there was another thought that was bothering her...

"I'm sorry you put yourself in danger," she told him, "You shouldn't have. I could have gotten myself out of there."

Hook just laughed at that.

Lyssa half-pouted, half-glared at him for it, she could have gotten herself out of there. She could have. She didn't want to seem weak to him or the other men, she didn't want to be a damsel in distress but to prove she could care for herself. She let out a small huff at that, she hadn't done a good job of that just now though, had she?

She'd just have to prove herself better, and she would.

One day she'd prove herself and her worth to Hook.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this little chapter, I sort of wanted to touch on Lyssa's earlier time with the crew and also sort of touch on Hook's sometimes dormant heroic side ;)

Again, I really am SO sorry to have to put this story on hold for the next couple months, but it has to be done. It takes...a lot to take care of a man like my father, and when I say a lot, I mean he fights me every step of the way in terms of taking pills and eating and drinking to the point where he HAS passed out and it falls largely to me to make sure he's still alive by the end of the day. It really leaves me with such little time throughout the day that I don't even think I'd be able to even manage an update a week :( I am so so sorry to do this, but it will be temporary and, hopefully, by the time I resume updating, my father will have beaten cancer :)

And I just want to say thank you to those of you that were hoping things were ok and that offered your well wishes to my father, it really meant a lot to me. I really wanted to respond sooner than this, but it appears my father and I both share the flaw of overestimating what we can do (and I severely underestimated how bad a patient my father would be). So I just want to say thank you all for your support, I love you guys :')

Some notes on reviews...

I don't think it's bad to want to slap Emma for the last chapter, lol, I wanted to too ;)

I agree, I think that a lot of Emma's flaws and mistakes are overlooked but, then again, the show seems to do that quite a lot to the heroes. Like, if the heroes do something villainous, it's barely mentioned again and half-forgotten about, but if a 'villain' did something wrong, they're never ever allowed to forget it, it constantly gets brought up, and they have to work harder than anyone for redemption where the heroes mostly get off free (though the second half of season 4 is doing better in making the heroes accountable for their dark acts). My biggest issue with Emma is something I touched on at the end of my Piper/Gold story, Emma saves Marian's life, or so it seems, and ruins a few other lives in the process on top of altering history and time and breaking TWO LAWS of magic (no changing time, no bringing someone back from the dead)...and nothing happens. Her parents don't reprimand her, magic itself isn't trying to get her back for breaking two laws (which we saw in OUATiW that it does do), no one but Regina seems to call her out for doing what she did and people ignore that because Regina could be seen as coming from a place of heartbreak instead of true concern for the laws of time and magic. No one tells her, Emma you messed up time and sometimes what you think is the right thing is NOT the right thing to do, it's all 'she saved a life, she did the right thing' because she's the savior I feel like she usually gets a free pass for mistakes that, if say Regina had done the same thing, no one would let her forget and would make into this whole big evil plot with all these consequences. Like...if Regina went back in time, and accidently saved Prince James, thinking it was David, and brought him to the future, David and Snow and half the town would freak out and turn on her and tell her she did it to try and usurp Snow and David as the rulers of the kingdom and, of course, magic would come back against Regina for breaking two laws of magic and everything that Emma never has to deal with :( I think that she does have a bit of an ego and people play into that with her. Like when Killian says 'YOU saved us from Pan's curse, and YOU defeated Zelena' when it was Regina doing both :(

We'll have to wait and see who her mother is, but as for Hook, yup, Emma definitely didn't think it through. I think, in her mind, she was thinking of Lyssa as leverage, that having her there would stop Hook from doing anything to hinder them as it would risk Lyssa's safety. And, in kidnapping her, Emma's proving that she isn't quite 100% a hero which may put just enough fear in Hook that, if Emma threatens Lyssa, she will actually go through with it where Snow wouldn't :)

It may breach Captain Swan for a very short moment, but it will largely be overshadowed by Hook/Lyssa...I need to think of a pairing name for them lol :)

I love overprotective Hook :) We'll get more of him to come ;) As for if Zelena's her mother, we'll have to wait and see ;)

I love your theories! All are very probable mothers for Lyssa ;) But I won't say just yet who her mother is }:)

I managed an update today, but I won't get a chance to update again till, possibly, June at the latest :( My father's battling cancer at the moment and I'm unofficially the primary caregiver at the moment :(

Could be Maleficent, we'll have to wait and see ;)


	5. Child of the Moon

A/N: **I'M BACK!** And I'm so sorry if I worried/scared anyone with the lack of presence online :'( Things went from calming to completely crazy shortly after I posted on tumblr my plans to return Mid-September. My sister moved out, my dad got a pneumonia, I quit my job, got a new job, started Master's courses online, began a tiny candle 'company' for supplemental income, got a tutoring position, and it's just been insane.

But I am back now! There will be a few changes to when I'll post and what I'll be posting, I have more about that at the ending A/N but I've also posted a more detailed schedule on tumblr's 'Upcoming Stories' page about it, but most importantly is, for the time being, I'll be updating this story every other day due to the new responsibilities in my life.

I want to say again how sorry I am that this took so long, but I am officially back and ready to go, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

~8~

Child of the Moon

Snow White paced back and forth before Emma, Aurora sitting off to the side, next to where Lyssa was lying, the girl still knocked out, her hands bound before her. Mulan was off to the side, before a small fire they had set up in preparation for the night, cleaning her sword as she watched the former monarch pace nervously.

"I don't think this was wise," Snow White murmured, turning to face her daughter, "We shouldn't have done that to the girl, knocking her out…" she shook her head.

Emma sighed, crossing her arms defensively, "It had to be done," she stated, "Look, Hook would have come after us for revenge after what I did…"

"I still don't understand why you chained him up and left him there," Snow cut in, thinking back to what Emma had told them as they headed away from the beanstalk. Apparently she had decided to chain Hook to the wall once she'd gotten the compass, trusting a giant, of all people, to release him after 12 hours or so.

"I told you already," Emma huffed, "I couldn't trust him."

She really had explained her reasoning. Hook, for that moment, had bene on their side, but he was a villain and she had learned the hard way not to trust any of them, especially not when it came to her family's safety. One villain cursed everyone in her family, took away their happy endings, even went so far as to poison her son, and another was the cause for her being separated from her own family for almost 30 years and was hardly the embodiment of trust with a title like the Dark One. She couldn't trust that Hook wouldn't get a better offer from Cora and join her instead, taking the compass from them to give to the woman as a show of renewed loyalty.

It was even worse in that Hook clearly cared for Lyssa, and the girl was firmly set against Snow White for whatever reason. If Lyssa asked him to, really pleaded with him, she had no doubts Hook would turn his back on them for Lyssa. And if Lyssa was as magically sensitive as she seemed, then what was there to stop them from playing both sides? There was nothing keeping the two from branching off on their own and finding their own way back to Storybrooke.

Hook would have had the compass, and all they would need to do is trick Cora into believing they had swapped sides, or even were just playing loyal to the heroes to get close enough to get the compass in the first place, and then, when her back was turned, snatch the wardrobe ashes. Clearly the two knew enough of Cora's plan on how to use them that they could be able to find their own way to Storybrooke themselves.

She really just couldn't trust Hook not to turn on them and right now, getting home to her son was infinitely more important than keeping the trust or loyalty of a villain, especially when she knew he'd ultimately stab her in the back in the end. He was a pirate after all.

"And now he'll never trust us," Snow pointed out.

"We don't need him to trust us," Emma replied, "We just need him to keep away from us. And to do that, we need her," she nodded towards Lyssa's prone form, "Hook was going to come after us for revenge," she repeated, "Having her around, even as our prisoner, means he won't risk actually doing it or else…"

"Or else what?" Snow nearly threw her hands up, "Despite what you've done, Emma, we ARE heroes. He has to know that we wouldn't hurt her."

"He also would have thought that, as heroes, we wouldn't kidnap her either," Emma added, "He knows now that we're serious, that not all of us are going to act like heroes are supposed to," she gestured between herself and Mulan for that one, "He knows two of us are willing to be a little less heroic, and that's going to be enough to keep him from attacking."

"It won't be enough to keep him from going to Cora though," Snow sighed, rubbing her head. She knew that, even if Emma and Mulan were willing to act a little less heroic, they wouldn't actually cross the road into cruelty or villainy either, Hook would know that too, he might guess it was an act, but he wouldn't risk it, so she could see the wisdom in that, but still, there was nothing to keep him turning on them and returning to Cora, "We betrayed him first Emma, he's going to go to her for help. And he'll know that Cora would have the resources and magic to get to us and leave Lyssa unharmed."

"He won't risk that," Emma said, sounding so sure of herself that Snow was tempted to believe her, "He won't," she insisted, "He doesn't trust Cora anymore than he does us, he won't trust that she wouldn't 'accidently' let Lyssa get caught in the crossfire. He might go to her, but it won't be to demand she get Lyssa back."

Maybe it would be to join her in her plans, with the understanding that he would get Lyssa back in the end and the three of them would go to Storybrooke together, but he wouldn't request the woman actively work to get Lyssa returned. Hook wouldn't risk showing the woman that much weakness, to let her know that Lyssa was that important to him. He might be a villain, but he wasn't stupid.

She could guess that Lyssa was aware of how dangerous Cora was, Hook too, that the two of them would make sure the woman was none the wiser about their true feelings for each other. To Cora, it would be Hook wanting to get to Storybrooke for revenge and, in settling a debt, bringing Lyssa along as the girl wanted to be reunited with her mother. They both had reasons to need to get to Storybrooke that would make them more willing to help her in her plans. But they wouldn't reveal another weakness for the woman to use against them, to use one of them as leverage over the other. She was sure of that. She might not have realized that she shouldn't speak of Henry to anyone till it was too late, but she didn't have a villain mentality where she needed to distrust everyone and fear constant betrayal was coming from allies. Hook wouldn't take that risk with Lyssa or exposing his feelings for her.

"If he finds out we hurt her though," Snow tried to make another point, trying to tell her daughter that others, especially villains, could react volatilely when they found those they cared for were hurt.

"We didn't," Emma shook her head.

"You had Mulan punch her in the head with a sword," Snow deadpanned, "That isn't the way to build trust."

"I already said, I don't care if he trusts us or not," Emma huffed, "We don't trust him."

Snow White was silent, glancing over at Lyssa with a deep frown, which made Emma mirror the expression as she observed her mother.

"You weren't talking about Hook, were you?" Emma guessed.

Snow sighed, "I just…I want to know why she seems so set against me," she admitted quietly, "I swear I have never seen her before, if I wronged her as badly as it seems I have for her to harbor this…resentment, I would have known, I would remember her," she bit her lip a moment, "She won't talk to me, she wouldn't answer any of my questions about what I did, wouldn't let me apologize," she glanced at Emma, "And now I don't think she'll be inclined to let me speak to her after we knocked her out."

Emma nodded slowly at that, understanding that, to Snow, it was more than just about Hook. While she didn't agree with Lyssa being their prisoner, she did seem to find a silver lining in Lyssa being there, that it would give her more time to work out why the girl disliked her so much and make amends. But now that chance was shot before it could begin. No one would be open or talkative with those they saw to be their captors.

Lyssa already had a grudge against Snow White, and after the events of hours ago, she doubted the girl would trust her or Mulan either. Aurora would likely just be counted among their allies and be someone Lyssa would instantly be suspicious of if she tried to speak to her or ask of Snow White. No, Snow would be getting no answers out of Lyssa now, she would get nothing save more dislike and resentment from the girl. Not only had they forcibly separated her from a man she clearly cared for and was close to, but they had knocked her out, tied her up, and were holding her hostage essentially.

"Does it really matter?" Emma tried to reassure her mother, though from the look Snow sent her, it hadn't worked, "I mean, just because you're heroes, it doesn't mean everyone is going to like you."

Hell, Grumpy was counted as a hero because he was one of the seven dwarves who helped protect Snow White…but he grated everyone's nerves with his attitude and she could say with all honesty that she didn't care for the man either.

"It's not that," Snow murmured, "I don't like that I've hurt someone and don't know how I've done it," she looked at Lyssa and back to Emma, "I try to be a good person, Emma, and hurting people like how I've clearly hurt her, isn't how a good person acts. Not even trying to make amends isn't how a hero acts either. I want to apologize, genuinely apologize, but I don't know what I'd be apologizing for."

That was what was really bothering her. She had no idea who Lyssa was, she didn't recognize the girl beyond the fact that she did appear vaguely familiar though she couldn't place from where. She couldn't be a princess of a neighboring kingdom, she was sure she knew all of them. That had been counted among important lessons for her to learn as a child, knowing the nobility around her so if she ever needed to make negotiations or treaties with them she wouldn't insult them. She knew Lyssa wasn't a princess, but all that meant was there were so many other things she could be. Was she a servant? Was she a peasant? Was she a child of one of the castle servants or her tutors? Was she someone that had been captured by the Evil Queen because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time…

Snow's eyes widened at that last thought, feeling like that HAD to be it!

That was the only thing that explained how Lyssa could be so unfamiliar to her and yet feel as though she'd been wronged by her! The Evil Queen hadn't been of the soundest mind in her quest for revenge, she had heard of many others being captured and held on trial, executed even, for supposedly helping her when she was living as a bandit. Some had, truly, helped her, others had just been in a place where she had been sighted and arrested after the fact.

That must be it! Lyssa must have been captured by the Evil Queen and interrogated for her whereabouts! She was sure she had never met Lyssa before, and with a name as unique as Analyssa, she was sure she'd remember it. So it must have been from her bandit days. She must have just gone through a town or stopped at a meadow or something and been spotted there, reported to the Evil Queen. And by the time the woman arrived, Snow White would have been long gone, and maybe Lyssa had stumbled through and been captured instead.

That would be a traumatic event for anyone to endure, even if it hadn't ended in her execution, to be interrogated, perhaps even tortured, by the Evil Queen was something anyone who had no interaction with Snow White would be resentful of.

Snow looked over at Lyssa, hoping against hope that, when the girl woke up, she could at least attempt to see if her theory was right and truly apologize for what the girl had been through.

"Well, maybe you'll get your chance one day," Emma shrugged, "I don't think anyone could hold a grudge against you like Regina could. And Lyssa seems…nice," as nice as a girl that associated and fell in love with a pirate could be she guessed.

Really, HOW had THAT happened?

Emma glanced at Lyssa as well, she doubted she'd be fining out the full story behind that either. When Lyssa woke, she would NOT be happy with any of them.

~8~

Mulan almost felt bad, hours later, when Lyssa finally woke at sunset. The girl had come to slowly, blinking quite a bit and seeming entirely too pale as she attempted to sit up. And it was expected, how white she'd gone, when the next thing any of them knew, Lyssa had turned and vomited onto the ground. Aurora, who had been sitting beside her, quickly reached out and pulled Lyssa's long red hair back for her, keeping it from getting dirtier as the woman emptied what little she'd eaten onto the ground. She'd closed her eyes and held a hand to her forehead, swaying even as she sat there with her other hand braced on the ground for more support. Snow White had rushed over, trying to help, trying to examine the girl, but Lyssa jerked away from her, scrambling to get farther back despite a tree being behind her.

It had been all the signal that Snow needed, however, to back away and leave the girl alone when Lyssa had nearly gotten ill all over again at the sudden moving.

Mulan had waited a moment or two, ensuring that Snow was moving back and out of Lyssa's immediate sight, before she made her way over as well, kneeling down, not even batting an eyelash as the girl tried to smack her hands away from examining her head. How weak the strikes were was a testament to how wrong something was that Lyssa couldn't even fight her off.

She had discovered what was wrong fairly quickly, the cause of Lyssa's illness making a pit of guilt form in her stomach as a result. There was quite a large goose egg on the back of Lyssa's head from where the blow that took her down had been dealt. She had clearly hit the girl too hard with her sword's hilt and Lyssa was suffering from it. A blow to the head could cause terrible headaches, vomiting, and dizziness, all of which Lyssa had experienced for hours after she woke. She had experienced it a time or two when she had been in the Army and training for war. It was not a fun experience and she felt slightly bad (or more than slightly bad) that she and her blow had caused such a reaction in the girl. She hadn't meant to cause her that much harm, just knock her out.

But with all the adrenaline from her earlier battle with Snow White and then the chaos after Emma returned, it seemed she'd used more force than necessary.

This was not good, for any of them, as far as it went to ensuring Lyssa was an unharmed prisoner. She knew from war that when one took prisoners or hostages, it was important to keep them in good condition. To return them harmed meant that the enemy had free reign to attack back in retaliation for cruelty or even to do worse to their own prisoners as a result. She could feel the weight of her actions bearing down on her. If the time came that they could leave Lyssa behind for Hook, when Emma and Snow had safely returned to this Storybrooke place, there was no telling what Hook would do if he saw her injured or found out about it, even more so there was no telling how much worse his retaliation might be as a result.

She shook her head from her thoughts and looked over at the small pot of soup she was warming over the fire they'd started. The sun had set a while ago, Aurora was already asleep on a small makeshift bed, while Snow White was off thinking and Emma keeping watch. She glanced over at Lyssa, the girl sitting against the tree, her knees up, arms wrapped around them with her chin resting on her knees, just staring at nothing in particular. She had been eerily silent since she'd recovered, refusing to say a word and pointedly ignoring them when they offered her food other times.

But perhaps this time would be different, she thought, as she scooped some of the soup into a crude bowl, rising to bring it over to the ginger girl. She crouched before her, holding the bowl out to her, not saying anything.

Lyssa looked up at her, having instantly become more aware when she saw Mulan get up, and eyed the bowl suspiciously.

Mulan sighed, lifting the edge of it to her lips and taking a small slurp, swallowing it to prove it wasn't poison. She didn't blame the girl for thinking they would try something like that on her, not after all they'd done was take her as prisoner and injure her.

Lyssa hesitated a moment longer, before slowly reaching out to take the bowl with her bound hands, "Thank you," was all she offered.

Mulan nodded at that, glancing back at the rest of the soup, set away from the fire to keep warm but not over boil, before focusing back on Lyssa once more, "I am sorry," she told her, "For the injury, I didn't mean to strike you that hard."

Lyssa snorted at that, clearly not believing her, "You heroes never mean to hurt anyone, but you always do. And it's never your fault, is it?"

"It is, this time," Mulan disagreed, feeling a little bothered by how the girl seemed to view heroes, "I struck you, I put too much force behind it when there was no cause or reason to. So I'm sorry."

Lyssa nodded slightly at that, still seeming like she didn't fully believe her but appreciated the fact that she was admitting that wrongdoing had occurred at her hand.

Mulan was quiet a moment longer, observing Lyssa as she slowly slurped at the soup, "I know it may mean little to you, but not all of us were in agreement with this plan to take you hostage."

"YOU were," Lyssa remarked, "Emma too."

"Not Aurora though, or Snow White…"

Lyssa snorted again, "Snow White would do anything to get what she wants, her daughter's just as bad," she frowned at that, "This won't end well for you," she warned, "Kilian won't be pleased that you took me away to begin with, not to mention the bump on my head."

"Well if he doesn't want you injured further, he'll be smart and stay away."

Lyssa eyed her a moment, seeming able to tell that that was a bluff, that they wouldn't actually hurt her intentionally, despite what she'd said about them doing anything to get back to their homes. Heroes operated more in an 'after the fact' manner, she knew. They never aimed to hurt people, but if someone got hurt in the process, they justified it somehow, made it seem necessary. They seemed to love assuaging their own guilt over hurting other people by thinking they could have done nothing else to avoid it. And they often forgot about how their deeds injured others, whereas villains were never allowed to forget it.

If she was injured further, it wouldn't be an intentional blow, but she didn't doubt it would be something they would excuse away as a fault of hers or Killian's that led to it. She was almost sure that would be the reasoning the heroes would use.

Lyssa let out a long breath and let her head hang back to bump against the tree and rest there, "I just want to find my mother," she defended both herself and Hook from the judging tone in Mulan's voice and the look in her eyes, "It doesn't matter whether you get me there or Cora does, I just want to see her again, to know she's alright."

"And Hook wants revenge," Mulan pointed out, "And he will certainly stay with Cora this time to see it through."

"Maybe he deserves to get it?" Lyssa looked at her, not moving her head though, "And you haven't exactly proven yourselves trustworthy either."

Mulan frowned as she observed the girl before her, "I don't understand you," she remarked, eyeing her curiously, "You speak like a hero yet defend a villain."

"I hate that label," Lyssa muttered, "Hero and Villain. The world is NOT that black and white," she stated with a small huff to her voice, "Heroes can do bad things just as much as villains can do good things. It's just how everyone else sees what they do do that defines whether it was good or evil."

"Villains do evil things," Mulan stated, sounding as though she were reciting a fact, "It isn't a matter of perspective, the act itself is always evil."

"So a kiss is evil?" Lyssa frowned at her, "When Killian kisses me, it's now a sign of evil? Well that makes true love's kiss the worst, most foul magic in the forest, doesn't it?"

"That's not what I meant," Mulan argued.

"How is it fair to anyone if you automatically assume that their intent is evil?" Lyssa continued, "Killian WAS helping you, he was going to ally himself with you, he DID ally himself with you, YOU were the ones that betrayed him first. How was that not evil? How are you not the villains here?"

"I…" Mulan shook her head, trying to find a way to defend herself, but…in that context, was there really a way to do it?

It was true, Emma HAD anticipated Hook would betray them first and acted preemptively. She had stabbed him in the back first, before he could them, in her mind.

"If he were to ally himself with Cora as a result it would be your own faults for pushing him back to her," Lyssa finished, "Keeping me hostage isn't going to help that matter either."

Mulan frowned, "We aren't releasing you. Don't try to manipulate me into…"

Lyssa rolled her eyes, seemingly annoyed, "I couldn't manipulate anyone if I tried," she sighed, "I'm too honest apparently," she muttered that last part, realizing she had given away a little too much about herself yet again in talking with Mulan, "If I were able to manipulate someone like you into releasing me, then that would be a miracle."

"Good," Mulan hesitated to speak, not sure if that might just be a manipulation tactic, a poorly crafted one at that though.

Lyssa looked up at the stars, mapping her location just as Killian had taught her to do on his ship. She was surprised at how far away they were from the beanstalk, given that she'd been unconscious and had to be carried the distance they'd travelled, and it was quite a good deal away. And she knew that there was slim chance of Killian finding her, even in the dark of night with a fire raging before her. For as much of an expert as he was on his ship, he wasn't that well versed in hunting on foot and on land. There was no way he'd be able to track her now.

She almost hoped he would return to Cora instead of try to find her. As much as she didn't trust Cora, she knew that the woman found him (and her, to an extent) useful, she would take them to Storybrooke with her if just to be a distraction to the others. She was hoping that it wouldn't get to that point, that they could find some way to make it through the portal without Cora joining them, but it seemed like a less and less likely scenario. They had put their faith in the heroes to be trustworthy and keep up their end of the bargain, to stay true to their word and honor the deal…and been sorely mistaken. Cora would be even more watchful and aware of them and their plans now.

Lyssa shook her head, taking one last gulp of the soup and handing the bowl back to Mulan, "Thank you," she repeated.

"You're welcome," Mulan nodded, standing, but hesitating to walk away, "You said before, that Snow White had wronged people, that she wasn't as pure as she seems…"

"I did," Lyssa looked up at her.

Mulan frowned, glancing around, "Is she a threat to Aurora?" she asked, knowing that the woman was trying to help Aurora sleep better.

She had been made aware that, in her dreams, Aurora returned to a room that was all aflame, that Snow White claimed there was no way to escape it for now but to try and endure it till the dreams faded. If Snow White wasn't as pure and honest as she was said to be, could she be causing more harm to the princess than she was letting on?

"I think she's a threat to everyone," Lyssa admitted with a sigh, "She's more selfish than she lets on, it puts other people in danger."

Mulan's frown deepened, not sure if Lyssa was being fully honest in her assessment or allowing her own views to cloud her judgement. She turned away, heading back to the campfire to scoop out more soup for the others, pondering which one it was. Clearly Lyssa knew Snow White, had been harmed by her, and for Snow to have no idea HOW, what did that say about the woman, that she could cause for someone to be harmed and have no idea about it, that the event was that unimportant that she didn't even notice it happening?

Whatever it was, she would just have to keep a closer eye on Snow White.

~8~

Emma paused as she trekked through the woods, spotting Snow White sitting on a log, staring out at the dark sky, "What are you doing?"

Snow White stood up quickly, startled, brushing off her pants, "Uh, just thinking."

"About…"

Snow just shrugged, not wanting to admit she was still trying to work out who Lyssa was and how she'd wronged the girl. She hadn't thought it wise or prudent to try to speak to her after she'd woken up ill, it seemed to have just pushed her further away from the girl's good graces, if she had ever been close to them in the first place.

"Well come on," she nodded to the side, "Mulan has some ideas where Cora might be hiding."

Snow nodded, following her daughter to the small makeshift camp. She spared a glance over at Lyssa, the girl determinedly looking away when she saw Snow look over at her, intent on ignoring the former-royal. Snow sighed at that, she would have to think of another way to get Lyssa to talk to her now. She shook her head though, focusing on the moment at hand, having just reached the fire where Mulan had bowls of soup prepared…when Aurora shot up from her sleep with a gasp, her eyes wide.

"Snow!" she cried, scrambling to get up to rush over to them, "Snow!"

"Hey," Snow hurried over, not wanting her to injure herself in her haste, "I'm here. It's ok," she crouched down, taking Aurora's hands, "It's ok, it was just another nightmare."

"No," Aurora shook her head frantically, "This time was different. There was a little boy. He wore clothing like yours," she eyed Snow White and Emma quickly, "I think he was from Storybrooke. He…he put out the fire."

Lyssa looked over sharply at that, for someone to be able to control something like that, it was a sign of powerful magic. She doubted a boy would have such an ability without help from another, a charm or a talisman that helped him. There were only two magic-users she knew of that had been taken by the curse that could have given something like that to a child. She found herself paying close attention to what Aurora was saying now more than ever, she needed to know what she might be getting into if she did make it to Storybrooke, she needed to know what would be waiting for her and her mother there, the potential dangers...

"He talked to me," Aurora finished.

"A little boy?" Snow frowned.

"What'd he say?" Emma asked.

"He said," Aurora took a breath, trying to focus, trying to remember, "He said his name was Henry."

A/N: I cannot apologize enough for the delay in continuing this story :( It was supposed to be picked up the middle of September 2015, but my sister threw us for a loop by declaring she was moving out and in with her boyfriend, but that the apartment had to be fixed up by October 1st, so we were all hands on deck scrambling to help fix it up for her and move her in. And then my dad ended up getting a pneumonia, and with his immune system still being weak from the chemo it lasted almost till almost Christmas, he was hospitalized for two weeks of it. And then, by Christmas, I realized I was miserable at my job and quit, and ended up getting a job at a Barnes and Nobles near my town and was in training for a month before I resumed my Piper OUAT series and caught up my Thor/Athena series. I've reached a point where I feel more stable and confident in my scheduling and time and family and am back to writing.

Unfortunately, 2016 seems like it is going to be a busy year for me. I'm now in a Master's program for English, I have a new part-time job (where the hours and days change every week), I'm tutoring my sister's boyfriend in an undergraduate course for the first few months of the year, and I'm also starting a candle business (AnitaCandle on Etsy), while trying to work on some more original novels.

As a result, there will be a few big changes to my posting schedule for the stories and the order that it will happen (a more detailed scheduling is up on my tumblr):

1\. **All TV-stories (like this one) will be updated every other day**. All movie-stories, when I get to them, will be updated every day as they are shorter. I plan to finish this story for season 2, then post my LotR Aragorn/OC story, then resume my Big Bang Theory season 2 story, and so on.

2\. My Big Bang Theory story for Claire will NOT be posted every two days. Instead I am going to alternate posting a season of BBT with posting a season of this story. So, for example, I will post all of say Lyssa's Season 2, then a movie-story, then all of BBT season 2, then a movie-story, then Lyssa's Season 3, etc.

3\. For Doctor Who, I will resume my OCs on April 14th, the day after the Angel/Marayna/Piper crossover story as, by then, I should be done tutoring my sister's boyfriend and have more time to edit/write/focus on stories. It will start with Angel Series 8, then Mac Series 8, then Judge Series 8, and pick back up with the Professor (then Evy, etc) Series 9. This is also true for the DW-OC Spinoff stories as well as the AUs for Proffy and Angel, they will be resumed in April. I will be posting a new chapter_ every other day_ just for this year. They are very long chapters and take a lot to edit and with classes and work I need a little more time to edit properly. This will continue to the end of Series 9 for the OCs, after that I will post TL5 likely in 2017.

I am really sorry this took so long to get back and posting and that things will probably be drawn out for 2016, mostly with catching up and finishing current stories (only really introducing new Movie-stories), I'm also sorry that the updates will be slower in being every other day instead of every day for a few months, but at least I'm posting again, which makes me happy and I hope you will all like the stories to come :)

I hope you liked this chapter though, it was mostly original as the episode featured more of Storybrooke than the Enchanted Forest and I feel like it was needed to see the conflicting opinions on what was done to Lyssa ;)

Also, I just wanted to reiterate something since it's been so long lol, this will be a Hook/OC story, this will also be a Swanfire story. Just warning ahead of time of the specific pairings so that those reading that are not a fan of either know what they're getting into by continuing ;) That isn't to say that there won't be any challenges or temptations or struggles for either couple, but I just wanted to repeat the pairings :)

Some notes on reviews...

I just want to say thank you all so much for your support and understanding with the delay in the story due to my dad's health issues, it really meant a lot to me and I love you all so much :') Thank you for your well wishes and prayers :') He's recovered well enough to return to work, even after his pneumonia scare on top of it all, but he's very happy to be back into a normal routine and getting out of the house for more than just doctor appointments and treatments, we're all recuperating well from that and are getting better every day :')

I like it, Lyook for a pairing name :) I think I'm going to open it up in a few chapters for more suggestions so we can put some up for a vote and make it official ;)

Yup, I have started the Merlin reincarnation story, it's titled Flashover and is (for the time being) being updated every other Wednesday ;) There is an update set for tomorrow and eventually I hope to get back to posting every week ;)

Very good guesses for who her mother is, we'll have to wait and see if you might be right ;)

I can't say if she might be Daniel's sister or not, we'll find out soon though who her mother is. Just have to get her to Storybrooke first ;)

There will be quite a few morally grey actions to come, yup ;) And we'll see some mystery in Lyssa's past, especially when talk of her father comes up, she really has no idea who he is which will be a curiosity for her to deal with. Emma will face a lot of consequences for her actions, they will very much come back to bit her in the end yup ;) As for Daniel, we'll have to wait and see ;) I understand the female OC thing. I think a lot of the reason why there are so many is that a majority of shows and movies and books are based around male characters, so the OCs tend to be females to balance that out :) Like, looking at superheroes as an example, I'd say like 95 percent of them are men with a handful of women and even then half of those women aren't as well known so it seems like men overpower the pool, adding OCs it sort of seems like they need to be female because there's just so many men and not enough women, or at least that's how it seems to me :)

Lyssa's soft heart and innocence will be a very big theme for the stories and be very much a continued presence yup ;) As for them being soulmates, we'll have to wait and see }:)


	6. Sea Legs

Sea Legs

To any of the crew of the Jolly Roger, the gentle swaying of the ship was familiar and comforting. The smell of the sea air, the salty hint in it from the ocean below, was a sign of freedom. The wind blowing through their hair, billowing their clothing, filling their sails to carry them further out to sea was a sign of adventure waiting to come, of motion and moving forward. The daily duties that they all attended to, the routine of it, gave a familiarity, made them all feel like they were part of something bigger, that they were all needed and necessary in order to keep their ship going.

And they were happy for it, even being pirates and dreaded, looked down on even, by others, they were happy with their lives.

The same couldn't be said for their newest addition.

And as much as they all wanted to be irate about it, irritated even, they more felt pity for the lass instead.

Analyssa had, apparently, become the newest member of the crew, as per Captain Hook's instructions. Why the man had accepted the girl into their ranks was beyond them. The only cause of it that he gave was that he had an accord with someone to deliver the girl somewhere and, until that was accomplished, she would have to remain with them. It was made harder to actually get the girl where she was meant to be given that the land and seas were in chaos after the Dark Curse was cast. It would take them longer than they knew to get the girl to her destination now.

They were stuck with her, was what it boiled down to.

To her credit, the girl was trying her hardest to be an asset to the crew instead of a liability…it just wasn't working all that well just yet.

She hadn't gotten her sealegs about her was the problem, they could all tell. She wasn't used to being on a ship as long as she had been. She wasn't steady enough to walk without stumbling or dropping things. She wasn't used to the chill of the sea air which caused her to shake even more, and what little she could manage to carry ended up spilling all over the place (which was more work for them to clean later). The smell of the sea also hadn't agreed with her just yet, she was ill more often than not.

And that was the real reason for their pity taking over more than their irritation. The girl tended to get sick whether she was on deck or below and she was trying so hard to get used to the swaying and smells around her. She had tried, actually given a good try, to all the remedies they had suggested to her to help with that.

Admittedly, a few of them had been gags, jokes to test her, some to mock her, to prove she didn't belong there on the ship if she couldn't tell the difference between an actual remedy for seasickness or not. But after she'd thanked them so kindly for their help and still tried them all…they hadn't had the heart to keep doing that to her. They'd actually tried to give her real solutions, real concoctions to help her get over her illnesses. She was always so disappointed after they failed, always apologized to them as though it were her fault that they didn't work. Even when it had been the tonics meant to do nothing at all, she was always so sorry and apologetic for it that they really were trying to help her.

None of them would admit it, they were pirates after all, manly, burly, cutthroat pirates…but when they saw her being sick, how pale she was after, how she always tried to put on airs that it hadn't happened, that she was fine and not to worry about her, always tried to smile for them despite how wretched she felt…well, it might have caused a few of their hearts to break for her. Just a few, a handful really, or none, none at all, no, none of them felt for the girl and her plight. They were PIRATES! For god's sake, they pillaged and plundered and poisoned and all sorts of other perilous deeds! They did not feel badly for one slim, slip of a girl that shouldn't be there in the first place.

Smee winced as he looked over, hearing the telltale signs of someone being sick off the side of the ship, to see Lyssa half hunched over it, her hands gripping the railing tightly for stability as she lost what little breakfast she had managed to eat to the ocean. He sighed, turning and moving over to a small bucket where they kept the freshwater to sip on during their tasks above deck. He ladled out a mouthful or two into a little tin cup and brought it over to the girl. Of all the men, he was probably the one most open in his concern for the girl.

It had been two weeks since she had stayed on with them after they'd made port for the refugee camp, she should have gotten used to the ship by now. He couldn't remember it taking any of the other men longer than a week to get themselves settled. He wouldn't say it out loud, but it was worrying him. The girl was kind do him, to them all really, and he may be a pirate, but he didn't like to see someone so good suffer as much as she was. She hadn't been able to hold anything down and it couldn't be good for her to lose strength now and there of all places, in the middle of the ocean. It could be equally as dangerous in that, if she did fall more ill than she was, they would have to turn the ship around and head for a port somewhere to find a physician for her. He didn't imagine the other men would be happy with that, nor would the captain.

For as pleased as the man was (and he could tell the captain had been, in some way, a little pleased) that Lyssa had agreed to stay on the ship with them instead of remain in the camp, he wouldn't be pleased with his course being altered.

He reached out and placed a light hand on Lyssa's shoulders as her body heaved yet nothing came out of her, waiting a moment to make sure she was finished, before gently turning her, holding up the cup.

"Thank you, Mr. Smee," she gave him a weak smile, reaching out to take the cup, using the first sip to rinse her mouth out over the side of the ship and the second sip to try and get some water in her to settle her stomach.

"Still not got your sealegs?" Smee offered her as understanding a smile as he could manage.

"No," she flashed him an apologetic grimace, her gaze flickering to the other men and back, "I'm sorry I'm such trouble," she told him, "But I'm sure I'll get used to this soon. You'll see, come tomorrow I'll be right as rain."

Smee chuckled at that assessment, shaking his head at that, she said the same thing and, while he could admit she seemed to get less and less sick, to claim she'd be entirely done the next day was an overestimation, "I don't care when it happens, so long as you don't keel over on us."

"I'm sure I won't," she smiled, a little stronger now, "I know this hasn't been the best example, but I am made of stronger stuff. I promise I am."

"I trust you, lass," Smee reassured her, "You've put up with the Captain these last few weeks and haven't walked away yet, that tells me something."

"He's been very kind," she argued.

Smee only barely refrained from snorting at that, Hook was his same surly self as he always was, though he could understand why Lyssa would think differently. None of them were really sure if Lyssa would actually make it as one of the crew. She seemed determined to stay, but anyone's patience, stomach, and will would be tested going through what she was. He wasn't about to tell her, but there was a pool going for when she would call it quits and demand to be taken to port to leave. So none of them knew how to really treat her. She hadn't been given any specific duties just yet, nothing that told them she was part of the crew. Coupled with how Hook treated her with something of the respect and pseudo-manners he would treat a guest or passenger on the ship, they honestly weren't sure if she was mere passenger or potential crew. Hook was as rough and crude as he always was with them, as his crew, but he tried a little to be more respectful when Lyssa was there, something about her being a lady and that they should treat her as one.

It was a far cry from how they had acted around Milah, which also gave them pause about whether Lyssa was there to stay or not. When Milah had been there, she had been one of them, as vulgar and cut throat as any of them, ready to go toe-to-toe with even Hook in a drinking match, ready to leap into a brawl at a pub, eager for adventure. She could stomach anything, that lass, a will of iron she had, and the mouth of a sailor to boot.

Lyssa was…sweet, in comparison, gentle. Perhaps too gentle, in spirit and heart and stomach to handle this life.

But she was trying, and that was enough in his book to at least attempt to help her out.

Lyssa's smile seemed to fade though, "He won't be quite so kind if I ruin this for him, will he?" she wondered.

"What?" Smee blinked, shaken from his thoughts by her question.

"Killian," she repeated, "He won't be pleased if I cause too much trouble for him, being sick all the time."

That was another thing that he found interesting about her, none of them called him Killian, or even Jones, his surname, anymore. At most they called him Captain, others on land called him Hook due to his hand, but the girl insisted on calling him Killian, 'because that's his name' she said. To her, she hadn't earned the right to call him anything else but his name, and even if she had…she seemed almost offended that people called him Hook. As though all he was, as though all the value he held, was in his hooked hand. It was going to take some getting used to, hearing the old name of their captain said so freely…even if Hook himself seemed a little irritated by her doing it, he never said for her to stop.

"I'm sure he won't mind," Smee tried to lie, but Lyssa seemed to see through it.

"For being a pirate you are a terrible liar," she pointed out, "He really won't be pleased," she sighed, "But I am trying, Mr. Smee, I really am, to find my sealegs. I don't know why it's taking so long."

"Everyone is different," Smee shrugged, "Everyone adapts differently. A life on the sea isn't for everyone."

Lyssa frowned at that, understanding what he was saying, that no one on that ship, not even Smee, thought she would make it in this life, living out on the open waters. No one seemed to realize that, in saying that, it just made her want to prove them wrong, to push herself more to succeed. She had learned that from her mother, to never let someone else dictate what you could or couldn't do. She WANTED to be there, she wanted to stay on that ship…she would just have to find a better way to do it.

~8~

"Shoot!" Lyssa hissed as a particularly rocky tilting of the ship sent her flying into the side of the wall, slamming her hip against the corner of a small crate set up in the storeroom of the ship. She sighed, resting her hands on the top of the crate for more balance, waiting till the rocking had stilled before she moved to pick up the small things she had collected from where they'd fallen on the floor.

"Midnight snack, lass?"

Lyssa froze at the sound of Killian's voice, looking up from her crouched position to see him standing in the doorway, half turned to the side as he observed her. She quickly stood up, "Killian, I…" and winced when she hit her head on one of the lower beams.

The room wasn't exactly level in its ceiling but peaked. The beams ran diagonally upwards towards the center of the room, and the crate had been more near the side than in the center, meaning the ceiling was lower in that area.

"Ow," she muttered, putting a hand to her head and rubbing it, sending a small glare at Killian when he chuckled at her misfortune, "I'm glad my pain amuses you."

Killian tried to sober at that, but the smile didn't leave his face, "I shall admit, watching you attempt to gain your sealegs has been entertaining…"

Lyssa frowned at that, "I AM trying, Killian," she let out a low huff, "I didn't know it would be so hard to get used to the sea. If I had known…"

This time Kilian was the one that frowned, "Would you have stayed at the camp?" he inquired, observing her, "You could return there," he added when she looked up at him, "Next time we make port, I could have one of the men escort you back…"

"Do you want me to go?" her frown deepened at that.

He let out a breath at that, "If you go, I cannot fulfill my contract and see you returned to your mother."

She nodded slowly at that, "If it matters, I don't want to go back to the camp," she told him after a moment of silence, "I chose to come here, to stay on this ship and I want to be here. I just meant, if I had known it would take this long to get used to the ship, that I might have found another ship to start on and come to you when I'd gotten used to it."

"Nay," he shook his head, "The only other ship is Blackbeard's and he would sooner take you prisoner, or worse, than allow you to return to us."

"I know," she sighed, rubbing the bump on her head once more, "I just wish I wasn't so much a burden to you and your crew."

"You aren't a…"

"I am," she cut in, "You can't lie to me, Killian, I have seen enough lies in my life to know when I am being lied to."

Killian was silent at that, at how serious and…weary…she sounded. The girl was often so chipper and upbeat, so innocent that it was easy to forget she really had suffered through her life. Not the same way he had suffered, but everyone's pains came to them differently. She was…wise, in a way. She tried not to let the bad things get in the way of the good she still saw in the world.

He almost admired her for that, had he not been so sure that her naivety would get her killed one day. She trusted too easily and forgave too quickly, she wanted to see the best in people, even him, and he knew someone less…moral…than he was would have no qualms taking advantage of her. He knew his men had done so more than once, claimed they were giving her tonics and medicines to help her seasickness when really it was meant to make it worse or do nothing at all. He had put a stop to it quickly when he realized what they were doing…and had been surprised to find that the men were already on the way to stopping themselves on their own.

For as innocent as she appeared to be, as much as she saw the world for its potential and the people around her for the good she firmly believed was in them…she wasn't quite as foolhardy as that could make her seem. She just wanted to find good things to focus on instead of the bad.

If only he could be so lucky as her to be able to do it, but going on 300 years of pent up anger and revenge, he doubted he would ever reach such a point as to be able to put the bad behind him as she could.

How she still managed to hope for the good after all this time, he didn't know.

"Aye," he murmured, "My apologies."

Lyssa nodded, pulling her hand away from her head and crouching down to continue picking up her fallen items, "I know that I'm starting to bother the men, and I'm hoping this will help."

"Well," he eyed the odd pieces of nibbles she'd collected, "Getting your appetite back is surely the first sign of recovery and adaption to the sea…"

It was why he hadn't sounded more angry with her for poaching the food that was meant for the entire crew. The last few days she hadn't been eating nearly as much as she should have, often giving her portions to the other men. At first he knew it was a genuine lack of appetite, the queasiness she'd been feeling from the ocean making her too off kilter to consider food. But after that had settled, and he knew it had because she had actually started to take food when it was offered instead of needing it to be given to her, she had just…stopped herself eating it. It was then he realized that she was more trying to prevent the nausea. If she had nothing in her stomach, then nothing could come back up and out of her. Not that it stopped the bile and the few bites she had managed to get down from coming up again.

When he saw the food she'd gathered, still smaller than what her normal rations would be at mealtimes, he hadn't been angry to see her taking it. He'd actually been more relieved. She had given up so much food the last few days that she could probably stand to take a bit more than what she had and it wouldn't matter to their supplies. He'd rather she take more if she felt she could eat it. It was dark out now, and the ship was becalmed for the night, as much as it could be on open waters. There was a watchman in the crow's nest to keep watch for storms and keep the ship steady should anything come up, but all other men were asleep, the sails rolled up, everything battered down for the night. It was calmer, there was less movement, so she should be able to eat and sleep through the night without much fuss and if she could keep that food down, just get her strength up a bit, she'd be less ill in the morning and…

"It's not that," Lyssa denied, cutting off his thoughts and pulling his gaze back to her as she stood with the morsels in a small bowl, "Your men have been so kind in trying to help me rid myself of the seasickness that I just wanted to see if maybe there was something I could make that would help too."

He bit his tongue to keep from telling her that his men hadn't exactly been trying to help her at times, but kept quiet, "Oh? And just what sort of tonic could you create that my men could not?"

Lyssa bit her lip at that, "It's a remedy my mother used to make for me when I was ill," she told him, "I…I hadn't thought to make it before now because, well, it tastes really foul," she grimaced at the memory of it, "And it's a bit difficult to make. I didn't even think you would have the ingredients for it but when I looked I was able to find all of it and, well," she shrugged, "It worked when I was a child and my stomach felt funny, perhaps it might work here too?"

He considered it a moment, "It certainly couldn't hurt."

Lyssa smiled at that, "I hope it works, I really am getting very tired of being sick all the time," she sighed, "I want to be able to do more, be a proper member of your crew and…"

Killian laughed at that.

"What?" she pouted.

"Sorry, love," he chuckled again, "Just…imagining you as a part of the crew," he shook his head, "Might be the most amusing thing you've done lately."

Her face scrunched at that, a cross between irritation and anger, "I could be a pirate!" she defended.

Killian held up his hands in mock-surrender, "I'm sure you could."

She rolled her eyes at how clearly his tone said that he was being sarcastic, "I could!"

"You don't have it in you, lass," he shook his head, sounding so sure of that.

"Maybe I just need time to adapt," she argued, "Maybe, once I get past the seasickness, I can learn to be a pirate."

"You've been here near a month and you still say 'shoot,'" he pointed out, "You've heard far worse filth coming from the mouth of Smee and yet you choose words like that."

"I don't need to have the mouth of a sailor to be one."

"You sort of do."

"There's more to being a pirate than how they talk."

"There is," he agreed, "But you don't have any of that."

"You're not even giving me a chance," she huffed at him.

"I don't need to," he replied easily, not seeming to care that he was irritating her, almost seeming entertained by how angry she was getting. And he was, entertained that is, the girl was insufferably chipper, even after being ill over the side of the boat, that it sometimes felt like it was impossible to anger her…he did love a challenge, "I can tell you'll never be a pirate lass. You're too…soft," he supplied, "You're too sweet and kind, you've too gentle a heart to be a pirate or one of the crew."

Lyssa frowned at that, having a kind heart wasn't a bad thing, not to her, not at all. Her mother always said it was a true sign of just how strong she was that she could keep her heart as gentle as it was and untainted from the horrors and struggles she had seen over her life. It was easy to give into the darkness, to the hate and anger, forgiving and moving on, hoping for something, was infinitely harder to do. Being kind when life hadn't been to you was a struggle that only the strong of heart, will, and mind could do, and that was her…according to her mother at least.

And, to be fair, the woman was probably more than a little biased to her side of the argument.

"You care too much," he added.

"It's not a bad thing to care about other people," she reminded him, "You care about your crew, about your ship…"

"Aye," he considered that, "I do."

"You cared about Milah…"

He instantly closed up at that, his eyes narrowed at her, "How do you know about Milah?"

Lyssa frowned at how suddenly his temperament had changed, "I saw your tattoo," she pointed vaguely at his arm, "In the refugee camp, you wouldn't have something like that marked on you if you didn't care," she hesitated to continue, "She's not here…but you still care about her, don't you?"

He was silent a very long time, long enough to have Lyssa shifting and glancing at the doorway he was standing in, debating if she could flee before she made an even bigger mess out of all this, when he finally answered, "I won't ever stop."

"Then caring isn't bad," she determined, "A pirate has to care about treasure at least, right?" she tried to jest, tried to lighten the tension.

Killian, while he didn't smile at her attempt, his stance relaxed ever so slightly, "I suppose he does."

"Then there's every chance that I could be a pirate one day, despite caring about people," Lyssa nodded firmly.

He rolled his eyes, tempted to rub his head at the headache he felt coming on. He could tell there would be no winning this argument with her. She was determined to be a part of his crew, to prove herself a pirate, then let her.

And when she ultimately failed, he would be all too pleased to remind her that he had told her so.

"Go on," he stepped back, gesturing to the hall behind him, "Work on your tonic, see if it helps. You can't be a pirate if you can't even stomach a pirate ship."

Lyssa beamed at that, taking his words to be a surrender to her point, a victory for herself, and nearly skipped out of the room…had she only been able to without the slight shifting of the floor beneath her feet keeping her from doing so and forcing her to carefully walk past him instead.

"Good night, Killian!" she called as she went on, "Have good dreams!"

Killian shook his head at her, yes he could really see THAT one being a cold-blooded, brutal, cut-throat pirate one day. He was more likely to end up being allies with the bloody Dark One first.

~8~

To say the crew of the Jolly Roger were surprised to see Lyssa awake, bright and early, and smiling…well, that wouldn't really be true at all. The girl was always smiling, even when she wasn't fully happy, even when she was in pain, she was always trying to not let on about it. Seeing her awake so early wasn't surprising either, with how tired she appeared during the day, they assumed she didn't sleep well either. So it wasn't surprising at all to see her up and about, appearing ready and eager for the day.

What WAS surprising to them, was that she actually ate her breakfast. It was a meager portion of porridge, but she had actually eaten all of it, and THAT was shocking to them especially after the last few days of her practically giving away her food to the rest of them.

"Feeling better?" Smee offered her a small, hopeful smile.

Lyssa beamed at him, "Yes, Mr. Smee, thank you."

"I see your tonic worked then," the captain called as he entered the small eating room as well, the crew grumbling their tired greetings to their leader.

"Very well," Lyssa agreed, "Tasted horrible, but it worked!"

It had taken her three tries to get it right, thankfully just needing to add more of an ingredient or two here and there instead of needing to actually remake the entire thing. She hadn't wanted to use up to much of the crew's foods or resources and had put what was left back immediately when she finished. The tonic would be good for a few days and she hoped that, within those few days of not getting ill and eating properly and sleeping better, that she would adjust to the boat enough to not need a second dose.

She looked at the other men, "Thank you all again for trying to help me with your tonics, I appreciate the gesture very much."

The men nodded their heads to her, some holding up their spoons as well, while others gave her a tense smile, those being the ones that had given her the faux potions to help her. The fact that she genuinely seemed to think they wanted to help her, that she hadn't even doubted them or distrusted what they'd given her when, for all she knew, it COULD have been poison had actually made them feel all the worse for what they'd done to her. Even if they would never outright apologize or admit to it, they could still feel poorly for it.

"I'm sorry that you had to experience me being sick so much," she blushed at the memory of how often she had gotten ill around the others, "But I'm very sure this tonic will hold up, I already feel much better, and I am very excited to learn more about the ship."

Smee glanced at Hook a moment, waiting till the captain nodded his assent, before he turned back to Lyssa, "It would be my pleasure to show you how we unfurl the sails."

"It would be my pleasure to learn," Lyssa beamed, taking that to be the start of her lessons in how to be a proper pirate.

She stood quickly, ready to go star the day, when the ship tilted ever so slightly…sending her toppling to the side despite how the other men barely moved an inch.

"Oomph!" she grunted as she nearly fell into the wall…only to fall right against the captain instead, "Sorry!" she blushed.

Hook just chuckled at that, "Tripping just standing still," he muttered, "Yes, I can see the fearsome pirate in you."

Lyssa felt she should have been irritated, embarrassed even, at how the rest of the crew laughed at that, at her expense, but really…she was just happy she hadn't vomited all over him from the sudden shift, it meant that the potion was working. It wouldn't miraculously give her sealegs, it wouldn't suddenly make her stable on the ship, she would have to learn how to walk and balance herself, but she wouldn't be as weak or sickly as before, which was a step in the right direction.

And what did it matter to her if the crew laughed at her, they laughed at each other all the time, especially Mr. Smee…

It just made her feel like she was finally starting to be one of the crew.

A/N: Lol, I could see Lyssa having a hard time on the boat the first few weeks. I don't picture her to have been on many boats in her life, not being able to afford it or have a want/need to be on one, so for someone that's never really experienced travel by boat, it would be harder for her to adjust to the seasickness and the tilting of the ship more than the other men :) I could also picture Smee being one of the kinder pirates and looking out for her more than the others those first few days.

I hope that Lyssa came across as a little more complex in this chapter. She really does try to be optimistic about the world, but she does realize the truth of situations deep down. For all that she comes across as naive, she does have some sense to her. It might actually be an asset to her in the future, that other people underestimate her or think they can take advantage only to find out that she's guessed their intentions all along and didn't fall for it ;)

Some notes on reviews...

We'll find out who Lyssa's mother is very soon ;) It might be possible she was caught in the crossfire. For as many allies as Snow has, not every single person in the Enchanted Forest might care about her or support her against Regina. Some might feel that they were targeted by Regina because of Snow not just facing Regina down by now but hiding and fleeing and blame her, sort of like 'none of this would be happening if not for Snow White' in an extreme case ;)

I'm glad you enjoy those aspects of the stories :) I felt like some times the heroes were so hypocritical and no one even said a thing about it that it just wasn't fair :( Like, Snow kills Cora and she has one episode of guilt for it, it's never mentioned again save like one or two times, and no one brings it up or blames her or guilts her about it...but if a Villain killed someone, they would never be allowed to forget it, it would constantly be thrown in their face, and always brought up along with guilt and blame :( As for the Regina-mother theory, it could be possible given how little Leopold and Snow were even around Regina. I mean, if they'd been around more or included her more, then Rumpelstiltskin wouldn't have had access to her as much as he did to manipulate her, so she could have been pregnant, but we'll have to wait and see ;)

I can say Lyssa's not pregnant ;) The flashbacks will go more into it, but they haven't been together as in an actual couple very long before the story started, not long enough to get that far ;)

I think that's very true why there are so few female characters as opposed to men, I mean, if OCs which are really just female characters get called Mary Sues, what's to stop a female character in an actual book or movie being called one too? They are the same exact thing, when you think of the authors. What if Tolkien had actually written Tauriel into his book, would she suddenly NOT be called a 'Mary Sue' because Tolkien created her instead of Jackson? And Lucas Films, as a producer, had a big say in whether Rey should be put into his Star Wars series, they seemed to want it, and she is STILL called a Mary Sue when the virgin-birth, chosen one, piloting prodigy that was Anakin isn't? It's funny because it's true that almost automatically, female OCs are deemed Mary Sues, no matter how well developed or realistic they are, if they have even one single trait that could be a Mary Sue trait, then they're now entirely a Mary Sue. But it's NEVER ever true for the males. Like, if we took Captain America's summary/backstory and swapped the pronouns for female ones, everyone would be shouting that it's a Mary Sue! But the male version isn't one? Same with Batman or Superman or other heroes, even the Doctor from Doctor Who could be seen as one, he DOES have some traits that could get him labeled as one but they, of course, 'can't' be Gary Stus. Even just their NAME can get them labeled as a Mary Sue before anyone even reads the story. I recently got a review that Marayna, from my Merlin series, is a Mary Sue,_ solely_ because they saw her name was 'Marayna' in the _first_ chapter of the first story and that was, apparently, the only thing Mary Sueish that they targeted to label her that :/ Which implies, her name was just TOO unique for her to be a realistic or well-written character in Arthurian Legend. Right, yes, because a name like 'Marayna' doesn't seem realistic to find in a legend that has characters like 'Angharad' in it? :/ Unless someone intentionally makes an over the top male OC into a 'Gary Stu' no one ever calls the males one (and even then, they'd probably be praised as an amazing character and defended against Mary Sue accusations to the death regardless), but the females always are. It seems like everyone claims that self-inserts are Mary Sues, always, always, always...what does that say about us as people if we might be able to realistically portray ourselves in stories, complete with our flaws and quirks and how we'd truly act...and then be labeled a Mary Sue for it? Can a character that is a literal representation of a real person BE a Mary Sue? Does that mean the real person in the real world is a Mary Sue now too? It's completely ridiculous and I think that's why there's so many female OCs and why people target them as Mary Sues so much, because some people feel anyone that enters a story that wasn't there originally can't be a realistic or good character if the original author didn't put them in there, disregarding the fact that the author's own characters ARE OCs and, therefore, should also be Mary Sues by that logic...but they're typically men, so automatically, can't be a Mary Sue (or Gary Stu) but anyone else added HAS to be :( Sorry for the bit of a rant here, I've just been thinking about Mary Sues in the context of original female characters and realizing how hypocritical it is to call the female characters Mary Sues when the men are probably worse but are never called out on it especially with how many more male characters there are than females. I'm tempted to respond to people calling a character I've worked hard on portraying realistically in the context of that story a Mary Sue with 'Thank you so much! I'm glad that you think they rank just as high as Captain America as an original character!' Or replace CA with another hero or male character similar to the OC. Because, by now, having an OC called a Mary Sue should be more a compliment (given all the heroes that people practically worship who ARE Mary Sues) instead of an insult ;)


	7. Into the Deep

Into the Deep

Hook was furious as he made his way down the beanstalk, especially when he saw that only Cora stood at the base. He knew, he knew in his blackened heart, that Cora hadn't been the cause of Lyssa not being there, but the other blasted heroes. It made sense, in a villainous way, to take a hostage for leverage, he would have done the same, but he hadn't expected it of someone like Snow White. Still, even as he jumped down to face Cora, he knew it wasn't her doing either. She would have taken more delight in crushing Lyssa's heart right in front of him.

So it was a small comfort that she was the hostage of the heroes instead of Cora's next target.

"My dear Captain," the woman gave him a tense, dark smile, "It seems you've been on quite an adventure. The compass, please," she held out her hand for it though he knew that she was fully aware he wouldn't have it.

"Yes," he huffed, "That. Well…matters grew complicated. It's eluded me for the moment. The details of the affair are a bit of a bore."

"Really?" she lowered her hand, sounding more bored with his excuse instead, "Stealing my protection spell and climbing the beanstalk without me might seem like a bore to you. But to me, it's a betrayal."

Hook's jaw clenched at that, if the bloody heroes had just stayed put he wouldn't be in this position of needing to convince the woman, yet again, that he was on her side, "I was going to bring it to you. Our agreement remains. We are going to Storybrooke, together. I'll get it back."

He had more than one reason to go after the heroes now.

"I don't have time for your games," she sneered, "I've crossed through too many worlds to be brought short at the brink of success. Who was it who bested you?"

"The Swan girl," he muttered darkly, he should have been more careful, more wary of her, but he'd assumed, wrongly, that the daughter of Snow White would be just as true to her word as her mother was. He should have put more stock in Lyssa's belief that the woman couldn't be trusted, she knew the woman and what she was capable of far too well, "Emma. Rest assured, it won't happen again."

"No, it won't," she agreed, "You chose her, and the consequences of that decision…"

"Oh?" he scoffed, "Are you going to kill me, now? Go ahead," he opened his arms, "Try."

Cora merely smirked at that, amused by him, "So brave. No, I'm not going to kill you. I have something far more satisfying in mind. I'm going to leave you here with your thirst for revenge unquenched, while I complete our journey without you. Perhaps I'll even take your dear little Lyssa along with me," her smirk grew far more evil at how his eyes darkened at the threat, "Keep you from her for the rest of time, separated by worlds you won't ever be able to cross. Hmm," she hummed, considering it, "That does sound like an apt punishment…"

"There's no need to be rash," he defended, for one brief moment feeling like he was honestly unable to tell what alarmed him more, the thought of his revenge being unfulfilled or being separated from Lyssa in such a way. Just a year ago, he would have said, without a doubt, it was revenge. And so he shook himself from his thoughts, it was still that, it had to be that. He had spent 300 years planning his revenge, it had to be more important...but the fact that, for that one moment, his heart had clenched so terribly at the thought of being parted from Lyssa, it threw him. He hadn't felt something like that in over 300 years, "We can…discuss this."

"Your pretty face buys you a lot, but not my time," she let out a mocking sigh, "It's too valuable."

"I _can _do this," he reaffirmed, "I can get it back. You need me."

He needed her to need him, now more than ever. Because the heroes had proven they didn't and wouldn't need him, or that they'd need him till they got what they wanted and cast him aside At least with Cora he would know, for certain, that was exactly what she would do, but she'd only do that once they were already in this Storybrooke place. He doubted the heroes would take them to their land, he doubted Lyssa would agree to go with them either, not after what happened, but Cora would. She was their last chance to get there and see their heart's desires fulfilled.

"No, I don't," she reminded him, "You've had your chance. Now, it's my turn to do this. The right way."

Hook glared at her, lunging forward, intent to strangle her if need be, but she merely magiced herself away in a plume of smoke.

~8~

Lyssa was quiet as she listened to Emma and Snow White speak to Aurora about her dream, about the little boy she had seen in the burning room. Apparently it was Emma's son, Henry, that Aurora had encountered. Emma had just shown Aurora a photo of the boy, confirming it was really him.

"That's impossible," Emma breathed, sounding completely stunned, "It was a dream. How could you dream of my son?"

"I have no idea," Aurora shrugged.

Snow White shifted, seeming to debate whether to speak what she was thinking before saying it, "Maybe it wasn't a dream."

"What?" Emma turned to her.

"That room…" she sighed, "I've been there."

"When I told you about it, you didn't say anything!" Aurora accused.

Mulan shot a look at Lyssa who gave her a blank one back in return, not needing any sort of expression to tell Mulan what she was thinking at that moment. Snow White hadn't let on that she knew more about what Aurora was enduring than she had. She'd kept vital information to herself and that was not endearing her to Mulan in any way, only serving to prove to the woman that perhaps Lyssa had been more correct than she would like to admit about the former-royal.

"You were terrified," Snow White defended, "I didn't want to make things worse by telling you I thought it might be real."

"A room in a dream is real?" Mulan turned her attention back to the others.

"The sleeping curse," Snow White nodded, "It has to be. I went through it, Aurora went through it…"

"Henry went through it?"

The group looked over as Lyssa spoke for what seemed like the first time in a while.

"Yeah," Emma swallowed hard.

"How would that be possible?" she shook her head.

"I wouldn't believe him. And he did it to prove a point."

"Emma," Snow turned to her daughter, comfort in her tone, cutting off any other questions Lyssa might have had.

"What else did you lie about?" Aurora cut in, demanding answers now, seeming to realize what Mulan had without need for Lyssa to voice her thoughts on it.

"I wasn't…" Snow frowned at her, "I wasn't lying. I was protecting you."

"Funny, isn't it," Lyssa called, still sitting against the tree, "How the line between withholding the truth and lying blurs."

"Look, that's not important right now," Emma focused on Aurora, "What did he say, Henry? In the…in the dream?"

Mulan's lips pursed at that. It was very much important right now, they needed to know about this room and how to help Aurora stop going there, and Snow White had known and said nothing. She had let them think it was impossible and now, when they tried to get answers, they were blown off just because Emma wanted to focus on her son? She could understand a mother's love and desire to protect, but to say that Aurora's suffering wasn't important wasn't something a hero would say.

Lyssa held Mulan's gaze when the girl looked over at her for that as well.

"He just said his name," Aurora sighed, "And then, I woke up, and…it was over."

"Emma," Snow turned to her daughter, "It's going to be ok."

"We are so far from ok," Emma scoffed.

"No," her mother tried to be hopeful, "We have a way home now."

"We have a compass," Emma corrected, "And the wardrobe ashes are still with Cora."

"Any attempt to steal from her would be suicide," Mulan muttered, looking at Snow and Emma, curious to what they would say now.

It wasn't a secret among the residents of the forest, the tales of Snow White and her prince Charming, how they fought to reclaim their kingdom, how they rescued each other from their wicked parents. Many saw it as romantic and wonderful, but some of them, the warriors, saw just a little bit more. Many of those attempts to rescue each other were as good as suicide attempts, they put many people in danger and yet…both Snow White and Charming went through with it. They put others in danger just to rescue each other and now she couldn't help but…test them…and see what they would say and do now.

Would they risk her life, Aurora's life, just to get the ashes? Were they THAT obsessed with returning to their land that they would put the lives of two allies in danger for it?

"Not anymore," Snow determined, "We can stop her."

Mulan let out a breath, not entirely sure if she was in disbelief that Snow White thought it was less risky than before…or that it meant she was actively considering going through with such an attempt, "How?"

"I don't know," Snow admitted, "But I know someone who does…Rumpelstiltskin. He'll know a way."

"Henry!" Emma's eyes widened, "We can talk to him. Now we can communicate."

"You mean to send Aurora back to that burning room?" Lyssa frowned, speaking just as Mulan was about to voice the same concern.

It bothered her a great deal that, not only were they willing to send Aurora back into the room...but that Emma wished to see her son there too, solely to communicate. A parent would never wish or put their child in such a situation just for an advantage. She knew that better than most, her mother went to extreme lengths to protect her, she couldn't imagine any mother being so happy about communication when it meant condemning her young son to returning to the burning room as well.

And the funny thing was...she had no doubts if SHE had suggested it, or if Hook had been there to suggest it, or even another villain, the heroes would be up in arms and refusing such a plan. They would be spouting how they are NOT going to use their son as a pawn or a means of communication. They would be raging about how DARE they suggest keeping Henry in a burning room just to talk to get information out of him. She truly believed with all her heart that if someone they designated as a 'villain' had made the exact same suggestion, it would be refused.

"No," Aurora looked at them, horrified.

"Oh yeah, Princess," Emma just nodded, "You're going back to sleep."

"You would condemn her to that room over this?" Mulan shook her head, sounding equally as horrified as Aurora.

"I'm sorry," Snow sighed, "But it has to be done. She's the only one that can reach that room, my mind's built up protections to it over the years, I can't go back, but she can," she looked at Aurora, "Please," she asked the girl, "This may be our only chance to stop Cora once and for all."

Mulan was silent, even when Aurora gave a begrudging sigh and nodded, moving to settle onto the small bed she'd been resting on before. She had to wonder if this was how Snow White had operated as Queen, painting things and sacrifices as necessary for the whole of the kingdom…when really it was just because it benefitted her. She could say, all she wanted, that their efforts now were to stop Cora, but all that had come out of hers and Emma's mouth had been about getting home and Henry, not about their remaining kingdom here.

"I hope this works," Emma muttered, moving to stand beside Mulan, watching her mother try to help Aurora rest.

"If it doesn't," Mulan threatened, "We do NOT use this method of contact again. Understood?"

Emma held up her hands in surrender, Mulan stalking off to go join Snow and Aurora, leaving her with Lyssa only a few feet behind.

"Henry."

Emma blinked and turned to look at the ginger girl, "What?"

"You don't strike me as a woman that would name a child 'Henry,'" Lyssa mused, considering what she knew about the woman before her, 'Henry' just didn't seem to be something Emma would have named a child.

"Yeah, it wouldn't have been my first choice either," Emma crossed her arms.

"I don't understand," Lyssa frowned.

"I didn't get to name him," Emma told her, a hard edge in her voice, "He was adopted by the Evil Queen."

Lyssa's eyes widened at that, "The Evil Queen?" she let out a breath, "Queen Regina?"

"You guys have any other 'Evil Queens' running around?" Emma scoffed.

"Cora," Lyssa reminded her with a frown at Emma's irritated tone, but then something else struck her, "The poisoned apple…"

"Yeah," Emma huffed, "Where else would one come from? Who else would try to poison a kid…"

"For as evil as the title implies, I don't think she would try to murder her own child."

"He's NOT her child," Emma turned to glare at the girl, "She poisoned Snow White, didn't she? She has no issue with poisoning her 'kids.'"

"Snow White was her step-daughter," Lyssa pointed out, "Brought into her life by marriage. If this Henry boy was actually adopted by her as her son, I can't see a mother trying to kill them."

"Well you clearly don't know the Evil Queen," Emma muttered at how naive the girl was, before letting out a breath and rubbing her forehead, "Look, she wanted ME gone, gave me an apple turnover baked with one of her poisoned apples, and Henry ate it instead, to prove a point to me that it was poisoned. He nearly died because of her."

"He nearly died because of YOU," Lyssa stated bluntly, making Emma round on her, "You want to blame her for giving you the poisoned treat in the first place, fine, she DID do that much. But she didn't make it for Henry to eat, she didn't make him eat it either, by your own admission, it doesn't seem like she intended him to eat it at all. If he did it to prove a point to YOU, then YOU were the cause of him eating it in the first place and being poisoned."

Emma just gaped at her for her words, to hear someone say something like that, to take a villain's side and defend them…and do it in almost a logical way that might maybe make sense. But no, she shook her head, the girl was clearly biased for the villains, for whatever reason a 'nice' girl like her was, she was with Captain Hook! She was just putting a twist on it, she had to be.

If someone like Snow White said it wasn't her fault, then it wasn't.

She'd sooner trust the opinion of a hero, one with a clear view of right and wrong, than someone that clearly shared the opinions of villains, those that would sooner cast off blame and make all the wrong choices.

~8~

Lyssa sat against a rather large rock, glaring over at Snow White and Emma with as many daggers as she could muster, which she was sure just looked like an exaggerated pout to everyone else around her. Her mother used to tease her about that, about how she could never manage to hold a cross expression for long or make threatening ones look even remotely intimidating.

She'd only managed it once, really, well…once for longer than a few moments. But it had been life or death and she had needed others to believe she was truly angry and vengeful or else they would have all died. She hadn't liked doing it, it made her feel awful and uncomfortable, but it needed to be done. It had worked, in the end, which made it worth it in the end, but she still hadn't liked it.

Right now, she knew that glaring at the two was the only thing keeping her face from flushing with embarrassment and mortification at what she'd just suffered at the hands of the heroes.

Just after Aurora had woken from her latest trip to try and see Henry, she had said that he was going to inquire of Rumpelstiltskin, or as Emma seemed to call him, 'Gold,' and would return to sleep in two hours. They had thought to put more distance between where they had been resting and Hook in those remaining hours and moved camp.

Apparently, Emma wasn't willing to take any risks with her being sneaky and trying to run away, so they'd tied her hands together, tied that to a rope line, and fixed it to Emma's arm.

She had basically been led through the woods as though a dog on a leash, it was humiliating! Honestly, did they really think that SHE would be able to fight them all off and flee? Even if she could flee, she couldn't fight them, not all of them. She might be able to take Aurora down, but not Mulan or Emma, both women seemed to be fighters, fast runners, and she was tired and hungry, her head still hurt and she could tell she hadn't exactly been walking in the straightest line as she was made to follow them. She was in no state to do anything, yet they'd bound her like an animal and dragged her behind them.

So, to spite them, she had plopped herself down in front of the largest rock she could find and refused to budge even as Emma tried to tug her up by the rope. She'd just given it a good yank, startling Emma with that move and her glare.

The only thing that had seemed to come out of all of it that was even remotely maybe, almost positive…was that Mulan, for some reason, seemed to be even more resentful of Emma and Snow. When they'd been walking, about to reach their new camp, she had seen Mulan stop to talk to Aurora, looking at something on the woman's arm, seeming to grow more and more upset the longer they spoke. And when she had finally turned to rejoin the other women, she had not been the warmest to Emma or Snow afterwards. She had been short and curt with them ever since, tense and almost wary of them. She didn't know what had happened or what Mulan had seen or said to Aurora that made her so cold to the other women, but whatever it was, she was glad for it.

SHE may not be able to manipulate Mulan into releasing her, but maybe, if she was very lucky, the two women would push Mulan far enough away that she might just let her go because of that instead.

Her head snapped over when she heard a twig crack in the woods, something that the others seemed to have heard as well for Emma and Snow fell silent, while Mulan rose to her feet, her hand on her sword hilt, all tense and aware.

"What was that?" Emma looked around.

"Mulan, wake her up," Snow pulled her bow out, readying an arrow as Mulan rushed to shake Aurora awake.

"Aurora!" she shouted, being more forceful than she probably should have, "Aurora! Aurora, wake up! Aurora, wake up! Wake up!"

Aurora sat up with a pained gasp, looking around frantically before frowning at the others, "Henry wasn't finished…"

"The time for that is over," Snow murmured, her gaze locked on something ahead of her.

Lyssa slowly stood, moving closer to the group to see what it was, when another crack came from behind them. She whirled around to see a man step past a line of bushes, his eyes blank, his body moving sluggishly…a wound and blood stain in the center of his chest. She recognized the man instantly as one of Cora's victims from the refugee camp even if she didn't know the man personally. She gasped, spinning around to see more and more victims, lifeless corpses walking towards them, and had only a moment to realize they were surrounded, before they attacked.

It was chaos.

Snow White as firing arrows, Emma was swinging her sword as was Mulan while Aurora tried to use a stick to protect herself. Of course though, of course, her hands were still bound and none of the others had realized.

She nearly tripped when she felt a hand grab her shoulder and spin her around, only for her hands to come free a moment later, at Mulan's doing. Well, it appeared she was wrong, someone HAD remembered and had the decency to give her a fighting chance.

Before she could even utter a thank you, the warrior had turned around, grabbing Aurora's arm to pull her into the woods, cutting down corpses as she went. She looked over to see Emma and Snow were distracted by their own fighting and knew this was the only chance she would get.

She turned, taking a deep breath and ran at the corpses moving towards her, shoving and pushing and jumping out of the way as she tried to make her escape…

~8~

Lyssa held her breath as she hid on the other side of a very large tree in the forest, able to hear Mulan, Emma, and Snow White speaking from behind it.

She had managed to escape the corpses easily enough, they all seemed to be targeting Emma and Snow White, which made sense. If Cora knew that they possessed the compass then she would send an army to retrieve it, and they were the two that had possession of it. It also meant Hook had gotten down from the beanstalk and likely informed Cora of the latest development. At least she knew he was safe, and now so was she. From how Mulan had disappeared with Aurora she knew the woman was going to flee to protect the princess, and she honestly didn't care if Emma or Snow White were captured by the corpses.

She had made it a good distance away from where the camp had been…when a thought struck her that had her stopping and hanging her head in resignation before turning to slowly, quietly, walk back towards the camp. She had no intention of returning to it fully, but just to get close enough to spy.

If the corpses were coming for the compass, then Cora knew who had it. Hook would be the only one that could tell her and she knew what Cora was like. Everyone in the forest knew how cruel and selfish and easy to anger the woman was. She wouldn't forgive Hook for going up the beanstalk in the first place without her, for changing her plans on her. He would need something of value to get back on Cora's side.

She doubted he would be as willing to work with the heroes again, especially not after they had taken her hostage. He would need something Cora wanted in order to get the woman to resume their original deal in getting to Storybrooke…and there was nothing Cora wanted or needed more right then but the compass.

For as numerous as the corpses were…Emma and Snow both seemed fighters, they would be cut down soon enough and the compass would likely still be in their possession. If she could manage to work out a way to get ahold of it, to return it to Cora on Hook's behalf, and her own, then she was sure the woman would keep them around again. If they gave her some advantage over the heroes, it would make her reconsider what had happened.

She just had to find a way to get the compass…which was why she was pressed against the tree, trying not to move or breathe. She had reached the edge of the camp right when the women had been shouting about something, about Aurora being taken by the corpses and Cora now threatening to kill her if the compass wasn't returned to her. They had been yelling so loudly about what to do that she hadn't needed to be quite as quiet, but things had gone silent now, she couldn't risk Emma or Snow or Mulan hearing her breathing or to step on a twig and alert them to her presence. She needed to be as silent as a mouse to make sure she heard their plans and they didn't see her.

And what luck had she finally managed to stumble upon that she now knew their plans…and that they might just give her an opening to get the compass too!

The group was going to depart very soon, in search of poppy plans so that Mulan could make a sleeping powder for Snow White, to put her into a deep sleep where she could go to the burning room and speak to Henry herself.

Snow White would be asleep, Emma would undoubtedly be watching over her mother, which meant Mulan would be keeping watch over the camp!

She didn't trust Emma or Snow, nor did she think they'd listen to her…but Mulan, if she was right, was starting to doubt the women and their intentions or heroism. Mulan had been very vocal just before, when Emma and Snow refused to give her the compass to go reclaim Aurora. The women had said it was their last bit of leverage now that SHE had been taken back to Cora as well. They seemed under the impression that the corpses had captured her too to bring back to the woman and Hook. No one could deny it or challenge that as they had all been so focused on themselves during the attack that none of them could be sure if she'd been taken or just fled. Either way they had lost using her as leverage, and the compass was all they had left.

Mulan had sounded truly angry that they were valuing the compass and a portal back to another realm over someone's life. She was very angry about it too and she needed that portal just as much. Weren't heroes supposed to value life above all else? It seemed to be something Mulan had realized as well, that they valued the compass more than Aurora's life, something she wasn't willing to risk.

The way Mulan had given in and agreed to track down poppies, wasting more time to get Aurora back…it didn't make sense to her. Perhaps it was just living among pirates for so long, but when someone suddenly changed their stance on a plan to agreement without a real reason to it…it usually meant they had some other plan made up, a secret plan, one that relied on the others completing their own plans first.

If she was right in what she thought, Mulan wanted Snow to be asleep. If it came down to it, she was sure Mulan would be able to take Emma one-on-one and win. She couldn't help but feel like Mulan was going along with the plan so that she would be better able to take the compass herself and go rescue Aurora.

And if she was right…then there might be something she could do to help the both of them.

~8~

Mulan was silent as she watched Snow White, sound asleep from the poppies. She may have lied a little bit when the women asked her how long they would last for. She had said an hour, maybe less, but it might be a little more than that. She needed the poppy to work long enough for Emma to become tired and distracted. The blonde wasn't far away from that, it seemed, Emma hadn't slept much in the time Mulan had been around her and she doubted the girl was used to taking watch so long. The moment there was quiet and peace enough, she knew the blonde would fall asleep as well, she just had to be patient.

"You heard them, then?"

Mulan didn't even tense as she heard Lyssa's quiet voice behind her. The girl wasn't exactly stealthy as she had been following them in their quest for the poppy. Quiet enough where the distracted Emma and Snow White were concerned, but not to a trained warrior like herself. She hadn't said anything though, because at the moment, as much as it pained her to admit, she was torn. She had sided with the heroes, who she thought were heroes, but their treatment of Aurora had left her questioning it. She didn't think it was Lyssa's words getting to her so much as making her observe the heroes more and making her own opinions.

"I did," she responded equally as quiet, both of them not wanting Emma to hear or look up. She was sure they were far enough away where they wouldn't be heard, but Lyssa, from what she could see when she made a show of glancing around on watch, was partly peeking out from behind a nearby tree so as not to be seen either.

"And?"

"I still do not agree with your views on heroes," Mulan warned, "But I can understand your concerns. They have…not been the best example of what a true hero ought to be. And Snow White?" she shook her head, "She is nothing like the stories made her out to be."

She had heard Lyssa and Emma speaking earlier, even when she had been nearer to Aurora, her ears were still working, she heard their discussion about blame and fault, about guilt. And while she had been mixing the poppy seeds, she had heard Emma express that perhaps she WAS the one at fault for what happened to her son. It had seemed, for one brief moment, that the girl had understood where blame went…but then Snow White had disagreed, had said that no matter what blame anyone felt or where it should go, it wouldn't help them now if they couldn't focus. It was almost as if she were implying that Emma still wasn't to blame, that there was just too much fault in all places for any one person to feel guilty and feel it justly.

Emma had countered that there WAS, in fact, one person to blame for everything…the Evil Queen.

And Snow White, despite having JUST implied no one was really to blame because everyone was, hadn't disagreed. She had been silent, her entire point now moot and useless as she seemed to agree with her daughter.

Yes, villains were often to blame, but she found it hard to believe one single person was the root of every problem. This was far too complex a situation for just one person to be responsible. And hadn't they told her, once, that they had arrived there because the Dark One had released the wraith on the Evil Queen? Right in that admission, the Dark One was also responsible for all this as well. If the rumors were true…it was the Dark One's curse that the Queen had cast, it wasn't all her, and she had learned in her own life that putting the blame on just one person was to discount all the wrongs others had done, and that was never wise to do.

"Cora is far worse than her stories," Lyssa murmured, "You know she WILL kill Aurora if she does not get the compass."

"I do," Mulan swallowed hard, "And I plan to see to it that she does get it."

"You would betray them?" Lyssa hummed.

"I made a promise to Phillip," she defended, "I swore an oath to him long before we encountered Emma or Snow White and their own quest. It will always come first, it must."

"If…" Lyssa hesitated, "If there was a way to free Aurora without you needing to betray them in handing the compass over yourself, what would you say?"

Mulan was silent a long while, considering that, "I would say…I'm listening."

Lyssa let out a breath at that, "If you give the compass to me," she began, "You know who I would return it to," Cora was the unspoken answer, "And she would release Aurora. She has no reason to keep her once she gets what she wants."

"She could kill her," Mulan's voice caught on that fact, "If Aurora is of no use to her, what is to stop her killing her once she has the compass?"

"I won't let her," Lyssa stated, her eyes narrowing as Mulan snorted quietly, "I mean that I will not let go of the compass, I won't hand it over, till Aurora is released and a safe distance away."

"Why would Cora trust that you won't just keep it, that you won't betray her like Hook was willing to do?"

"Because if I know anything about the Queen of Hearts," she muttered, "She won't have just let Killian walk away from his betrayal. She'll have something of him to hold over me, just as you planned to use me against him. She'll know I'll give the compass over with Aurora gone, because Killian would be at risk if I don't."

Mulan considered that, it did make sense. As much as she didn't want to give the compass to anyone else, she knew it would also keep her from being the direct betrayer to the heroes. It would keep her on their side if she wasn't the one to physically hand over the compass.

"You could tell them I snuck past you and took it," Lyssa whispered, "Emma looks near enough asleep that I could take it off her…"

Mulan shook her head, "They won't believe you snuck past me."

"Then tell them I tricked you."

"Still wouldn't work."

"Or that I managed to get it and fought you off…"

Mulan almost laughed at that, "You have no weapon."

"Well I'm not entirely defenseless!" she huffed.

"You're not exactly a threat either."

"I could trick you," Lyssa pushed, "I could outsmart you. I DID live for a year with pirates, they're tricky and sneaky. I could have just used my head to…to make you think someone was coming up behind you and when you turned around I grabbed the compass and ran!"

Mulan was quiet, curious if she might be feeling the lack of sleep as well…because even that was starting to make sense.

"That…might work," she could admit.

Lyssa smiled, "Just…get the compass, and give it to me, and I'll run it back to Cora so she can release Aurora. I promise I'll give it to her and get her released."

Mulan, seeing Emma nearly slump against Snow, a sure sign she had fallen asleep completely now, turned to face the ginger girl, "Why should I trust you?"

Lyssa gave her a sad smile, "No one deserves to be Cora's prisoner. We all know the stories about her, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. And Aurora was nice. She didn't want me taken hostage, right?" Mulan nodded at that, "I don't want her to be one either."

Mulan sighed, sensing no lie off the girl, no hint of falsehood or treachery. She hadn't sensed anything like that off her the entire time she'd been with them either. She really did NOT make sense, she acted like a hero but trusted the villains more.

"Fine," she muttered, getting up and moving over to Emma, gently managing to get the compass out of the girl's coat pocket and turn back to Lyssa, now standing behind the tree, without waking the blonde at all, "Take it," she held the compass out to her, grabbing her wrist with her other hand as Lyssa moved to retrieve it, "But know this, if you betray me, if you fail this, you _will_ feel my wrath."

"If I fail this, I'll be facing down _Cora_," Lyssa reminded her, "That's more than a fair bit worse, don't you think?"

Mulan nearly cracked a smile at that, it was true, whether Lyssa failed or succeeded, she would still have to face down Cora, "Go."

Lyssa nodded, holding the compass close to her chest and ran.

~8~

Mulan ran through the forest, not as fast as she could have, but enough to make it look like she was trying to put distance between her and the camp. It had struck her, a short while after Lyssa had taken off, that the moment she realized the girl had the compass, she would have gone after her. If she was still there when Snow White or Emma awoke, it would be harder to convince them that she hadn't had a hand in the compass disappearing. So she'd taken off into the woods, knowing they'd wake soon and find her missing, knowing they would assume she had taken it and come after her.

And it would be on them, for their assumption, for following her instead of thinking it could be Lyssa and tracking the other girl down instead. It would be good for her though, because their thoughts that Lyssa had been captured with Aurora and taken back to Cora would make them think it was just her own doing that the compass was missing. As long as they were following HER, they wouldn't be looking for Lyssa, giving her time to get to Cora and free Aurora.

She gasped when an arrow went flying past her, embedding itself in a tree, just missing her ear. She spun around, pulling her sword out only to see Snow and Emma running for her.

"That was a warning shot," Snow aimed another arrow at her, "Try to run, and I promise the next one won't be."

"You followed me!?" Mulan put on the act of being alarmed and angry.

"I know a thing or two about tracking."

"All we want is the compass," Emma told her with a glare.

"As do I," Mulan huffed, confusing them.

"What?" Emma frowned.

"As you slept, I heard a noise in the woods and went to investigate. When I returned, I saw a glimpse of red hair disappearing in the trees."

"Lyssa?" Snow breathed.

Mulan nodded, "I went to check on you, ensuring nothing had harmed you, and saw that the compass was gone. I was following tracks of my own, trying to get to Lyssa first, to stop her, when you stopped ME instead!"

"We can get it back, we can still stop Cora and save Aurora," Snow lowered her bow, stepping down with Emma, "We learned how to overpower her and once we get what we need, we will defeat her, and Aurora will be free."

"I already am," a voice called, causing the three women to look over, seeing Aurora slowly making her way through the woods towards them.

"Ok," Emma blinked, shaking her head, "Don't take this the wrong way, but how the hell did you get here?"

"Were you followed?" Mulan frowned deeply at the sight of Aurora. The time it would take to reach Cora…Aurora would have had to have been released much earlier to be this distance into the woods already.

And now she felt completely guilt-ridden…she had just given the compass over to someone intent to return it to Cora to save Aurora and Aurora was already saved. There had been no point in turning the compass over now, she may have just condemned the heroes quest in trying to maintain her oath when there was no danger to it breaking.

"I don't think so," Aurora glanced behind her, "Cora may know I'm gone, but she didn't see me escape."

"How _did _you escape?" Emma eyed her.

Aurora smiled at that, "It was Hook. He let me go."

"Why?"

"Because of you," Aurora said simply, "He said he wanted to prove to you, that you should've trusted him. That if you had trusted him…you could've defeated Cora together. That he and Lyssa could've gotten the remains of the wardrobe for all of us. Without him, you'll have to go up against her all by yourself. He only wanted to help Lyssa return to her mother. And if releasing me could do that, keep you all on track and get Lyssa there, he would help."

Emma was silent at that, the expression on her face clearly saying that she finally felt like she might have made a mistake in chaining Hook up. If he was trying to help them, even now, even after what she'd done instead of attack them for taking Lyssa as a brief hostage…maybe he really hadn't been as villainous as she'd thought.

"Where IS Lyssa?" Aurora inquired, looking around, "Where's she gone?"

"Uh," Emma shook her head, "The um, the corpses got her."

"Or she escaped," Snow offered, "We're um…not sure what happened to her and with Cora capturing YOU, we um…we didn't have enough time to find her again."

"Not only did she escape," Mulan frowned, "She managed to steal the compass as well."

"What?!" Aurora's eyes opened wide at that, "She has the compass? But the portal! Storybrooke!"

"Yeah," Emma winced, rubbing her head, pulling herself out of her thoughts, knowing it was too late to track Lyssa by now, if Mulan had been after her and they'd stopped her, the girl had to already be closer to getting to Cora than they were getting to Lyssa, "Cora's gonna have the ashes AND the compass any minute now."

"What do we do?" she looked between the women, "Is there any way to stop her?"

"There might be," Snow nodded, "We've learned how to. We just…" she sighed, "Need to make another journey. If we can get what we need in time, we may be able to stop Cora going through with her plans."

"Where are we going?"

"Rumpelstiltskin's cell," Emma stated.

Aurora nodded, straightening her back and lifting her chin, determined, "Then lead the way."

"It's going to be dangerous," Snow warned.

"I know," Aurora nodded, "But if we stand a chance at defeating her, we must try. Cora needs to..."

~8~

"...be stopped," Cora spoke, holding a heart in her hands, the beating organ close to her lips where she could influence the owner to say whatever she wished, "No matter what."

She hummed, smiling to herself as she lowered the heart of Aurora and looked over at Hook, leaning against the wall of her base, a smug look on his face, "Impressive," she remarked, placing the heart in a small bag for keeping, "You took a heart."

Hook nodded, "Now you've a princess."

"Indeed, I do," she grinned darkly, turning to walk away, Hook following her.

"Now, can we get on with the business of going to Storybrooke…" he eyed the woman, "Together?"

"Why not?" she shrugged, moving up a set of stairs, "I hate to travel alone. All we need is…"

"The compass?" a voice called from a doorway to the room they had just reached.

They looked over to see Lyssa standing there, the compass clutched in her hands.

"I come bearing gifts?" she held it up, not sounding sure of herself.

She had glimpsed Aurora in the woods as she had been running to deliver the compass, was relieved that she had gotten out of Cora's clutches, but she wasn't going to stop or turn around. The heroes had proven they couldn't be trusted and she at least knew enough about Cora to know that the woman would hold her word if just long enough to get them to Storybrooke.

Cora delighted in having power, in having others owe her a debt. If she could get the two of them to Storybrooke, Cora would hold it over them, use it as a means to get them to do her a favor in return. Lyssa didn't care what favor it might be, what the woman would want her to do, so long as she got to see her mother again. It would be worth it.

"It appears you and your dear pirate think alike," Cora stepped forward, moving till she was standing right in front of Lyssa, holding out her hand for the compass, "You both know just what to do to earn my good graces back."

Lyssa gave her a tense smile, but handed it over, "I hope this makes amends for the others gaining possession of it for a time?" she asked, her voice shaking, causing Hook to walk over to her and wind an arm around her in support.

If Lyssa hated Snow White…she was terrified of Cora.

"Perhaps it does," Cora eyed the compass and then looked at Lyssa, "So long as neither of you make a habit of…jumping ship, as it were?" she held up a hand even with Lyssa's chest, with her heart, and examined them, "These gloves are too fine to coat in dust, after all."

"We won't," Hook swore, feeling Lyssa start to physically shake beside him, understanding the threat in Cora's words. When she crushed hearts, it was to crush them into dust in her very hands. She was trying to warn them that she would do the same to them, crush their hearts before their very eyes, if they betrayed her again.

"Good," Cora smirked, her gaze still resting on Lyssa despite Hook having made the promise, "See to it that you don't."

Lyssa held her breath as Cora walked past her, heading out of her small base to prepare a way to stop the heroes once and for all so they wouldn't interrupt her plans. Lyssa watched her go till she disappeared, and turned, covering her face with her hands and burying it in Killian's chest, the man winding his arms around her, knowing how much she really was frightened of Cora and her threats.

She knew the woman would go through with it, would crush their hearts in front of them. And not just that, no, Cora would make sure to do it in the reverse, she would force one of them to watch as the other's heart was crushed just to hurt them more.

Everyone knew the stories of Cora, of the Queen of Hearts, and that was reason enough to be scared out of her mind.

And still, even then, even as she clung to Killian for the brief comfort from it all, a niggling voice in the back of her mind reminded her…

Cora was STILL better to ally herself with than Snow White.

A/N: For as much as the heroes seemed to want to keep Lyssa a hostage, I couldn't see her just sitting by for too long. I think she learned from when the Ogres captured her that she had to be smart with her time and, in knowing only Hook was out there and it would take too long for him to get back to the crew to come help her, she needed to be smart in how she would get out of it too, but that also, while she was there, to pay attention to their plans and get information too. It just so happened that the opportune moment occurred and I think she would be able to work it out, in how the corpses came back to life, that Cora was involved and knew that the compass was in the heroes' possession, which meant that Cora knew Hook had turned on her briefly. Both she and Hook thought alike in bringing Cora a 'gift' to make up for that and get them on her good side again ;)

Some notes on reviews...

Mary Sues are exactly what women, in real life, were expected to be for so much of our history, perfect. I think that's where the fear comes from when it comes to writing female OCs and finding a way to display their flaws, because it's not just about writing realistic characters but also helping to break away from that mold and expectation, and as with all things, change is resistant so we something that both don't want it to change but also WANT it to but don't know which or how to be, I think :( Writers are expected to give female characters (or any character really) flaws but, in real life, women are also expected, more than others, _not_ to_ show_ any flaws. Men and women were taught, and likely still are, to display their flaws in different ways and it comes across in writing. As a case of psychology, males (and male OCs) tend to be more outward and external in their flaws, females (and female characters) are expected to internalize and hide their flaws. If art imitates life, then it makes sense for female OCs to not display flaws in an _outward_ manner either, but people think they're unrealistic then. So when readers don't see a noticeable flaw in a woman, they assume they don't have any at all, instead of reading deeper to see how they've internalized their flaws and fears and shortcomings. If someone actually writes a character with a noticeable flaw, they are STILL Mary Sues, because now we're 'trying too hard' to make a good character. If a female character has a bad past, if they are too sarcastic, if they are scarred, if they cut off their hair or even dye it blue, they are a Mary Sue. If they have the wrong name they're a Mary Sue, female OCs are judged more harshly and in with far more unrealistic expectations than male OCs are. Women, female characters especially, can't win. It feels sometimes like, if women aren't perfect in real life, then we're not 'real women' but if female characters in stories ARE the perfect ideal we've been taught to try and achieve, then they're not 'real women' either :/ I feel like we've only just started to break away from what is expected of women in recent decades, it's going to take a while for everyone to catch up to a point being made in Mary Sues. Mary Sues are what women were expected and taught to be, perfect. I'm not speaking for all women or even men everywhere, just my personal thoughts and views about what was expected of women until recently when we started saying 'No, we're independent people, not one ideal.' This entire topic has actually made me think of WHY Mary Sues, the traits they have, are seen as being too 'unrealistic' and how realistic each of those traits really is when it comes to real women, which I'll be posting on my tumblr soon ;)

Aww thank you! I am very flattered, and I'm very happy that you're enjoying the stories so far :) I wish you luck on your own writing too! :)

I'm glad that you associate with Lyssa :) I tried to make her relateable but also different from Piper. She is innocent and she wants to see the best in things, but just because she WANTS to see it, doesn't mean she doesn't know how a situation really is or what a person is really like. Wanting and doing are different things ;)


	8. A Pirate's First Love

A Pirate's First Love

Lyssa smiled widely as she sat across from Hook in the tavern of their latest place of port. It had been a few months since a particular incident involving Hook and another tavern…and a brawl that had happened there when one of the drunkards had gotten a little too forward with her. She was very excited to be back in one though, it was only her second time in a tavern and, after the first one, she was looking forward to a little bit of peace. It had been a little too much excitement for her, despite living on a pirate ship. She had been looking forward to a quiet evening in the tavern then, after the excitement of being a pirate, or trying to be, she wanted just a small bit of time on land, doing something (she was sure was) normal and common.

She hadn't been in a tavern before that last time though she'd heard tales about it and her first experience there had been enlightening to say the least. She hadn't thought that bar brawls happened so often as it appeared they did, but she had been proven wrong. To be fair, Killian HAD warned her that the men could get a little rowdy when they'd had a drink or two in them, not his men, no. He always made sure that his men never got so inebriated that they wouldn't be able to man the ship with some sense about them. Even being pirates, _especially_ being pirates, they had to have more sense about them and be able to protect themselves. There was no telling who would try to attack them if their guard was low for they had gathered more than enough enemies over the years at sea.

She had been so in awe of the tavern that it seemed to amuse Killian to no end. She hadn't even thought to take a single sip of rum or ale or mead or all the other variations of beverage around, she'd just wanted to enjoy the night and see how the crew interacted. Killian had just sat there with a single cup of rum, content to watch her reactions and answer her questions. It hadn't been till he'd gotten up to go retrieve a cup of rum for herself and another for him that the event had happened with the rather rude man that wouldn't leave her alone till Killian returned and the fight broke out.

Now though, now she'd_ finally_ managed to convince him that they should go to a tavern again. It had taken a few weeks, well, a couple months really, and she had needed a lot of help from the crew to convince him, but it worked! She had asked for a few pointers on how to defend herself if she found herself in the same situation and the men had been very eager to help her learn what to do and not do, attacks she could manage even being as small and 'weak' (though she thought they only said that because she was a woman, the nerve!) as she was. Once she had demonstrated them to Killian, he had considered it and agreed that they could go to the tavern again, a different one in a different port, of course, but they were going!

She had the sneaking suspicion that the men had been ordered to keep more of an eye on her though, even as she sat there across from Killian, she could see them glancing over at her from around the room out of the corner of her eye. She would have huffed at that if she hadn't found it a little sweet that they were concerned about her. She had known, ever since the Ogre had captured her, that the men _did_ actually care about her, that she had managed to work herself into a semblance of being part of the crew even if she didn't feel like she was a real pirate just yet. They cared for her and they looked out for her, the way they did each other, and that meant something to her.

"What do you think of this one so far, lass?" Killian's voice cut across her thoughts, pulling her attention over to him.

They were sitting at a small table in the corner, one big enough for just two, but that was just as well. If people thought she was here with him, then she didn't think other men would try to get too close to her like last time. And, really, she liked spending time with Killian alone, the crew were all wonderful and very amusing, but Killian was interesting to her, in a way the other men weren't. He was like an enigma at times, he was a pirate but he had a code, he was a villain but he had morals, he was dishonest but kept his word as much as he could. He liked to show that, even though he was a pirate captain, he still had good form about other things (thinking on it now, he said that a lot, good form or bad form and things). When it came to her and how she was treated, especially, he liked to show that he could still be a gentleman. She didn't know why he did it though.

She had seen him interact with other women, other barmaids and 'tavern wenches' as the men called them, and he was as crude and vulgar with them as he was with the crew. He flirted with them and openly wooed them, easily too. She wouldn't lie and say she hadn't seen one or two of them sneaking out of his quarters and off the ship a time or two either. She hadn't seen many recently though, now that she thought about it, ever since a month or so before her last tavern visit really. But she did know that he could easily seduce a woman into his bed.

He hadn't even tried with her.

NOT that she wanted him to, she still had her manners and respect enough to not be tricked into something like that by just anyone, especially by someone she wasn't courting. She held firm to her belief that something like that should be done only when two were committed in marriage. It was just something she had been raised to believe in, that it was a sign that a man was truly serious about you if he was willing to wait and wed to bed instead of just take a maid to his quarters. Any man willing to wait and be faithful during such a wait was worth it in the end.

Still, she knew how Killian treated other women, and she found it odd how he treated her. She couldn't make sense of it really. He didn't treat her like the barmaids, it seemed like he had more respect for her than that. But he didn't treat her like one of his crew either, but with a bit more…kindness? No, that wasn't the right word for it either, he liked making fun of her at times, poking fun at her for things she did or said or thought. But it wasn't in a mean spirited way either, it wasn't in a biting or cutting tone that you'd expect from a pirate. She didn't know what to make of it but…she'd be lying if she said she didn't enjoy how he treated her.

It made her feel special, and well, she hoped that it meant he was fond of her. As the weeks and months had gone by, she had found herself fond of him, more than fond of him really. She wasn't sure what she felt exactly, but she knew she enjoyed his company, that she very much liked spending time with him, especially at night when the stars were out and they would look up at them together. He had insisted that, while his crew might teach her other areas of the ship and other duties, HE be the one to teach her how to steer the ship and navigate via the stars. They spent many a night learning them and their positions, with him standing close and showing her how to use them to map her way or work out where she was. Sometimes, when it was particularly chilly out, he would place his jacket over her shoulders, not saying a word about it or making a big deal of it, not even recognizing that he'd done it.

She liked his jokes too, once she had gotten used to his humor of course, it was an acquired taste what he found funny. More often than not, she was sure he was censoring himself for her, she appreciated that he considered her feelings and discomfort in things. It was something he didn't seem to do much for the crew at times. She liked how he smiled at her, the sound of his laugh brought a smile to her face every time, except when he was laughing at her. She liked how his eyes looked like the ocean sky when a storm had just passed, his black leather suited him, and even his hook had character, it made him who he was. She adored how, even being a pirate, he cared about his crew, about her, he proved it in such small ways that you wouldn't realize if you hadn't looked. She felt like she understood him, the good and bad parts, and she liked to think that, little by little, she brought out the man he used to be. Not enough to erase the man he was, but bring back some parts of him that he thought he'd lost, parts she knew were important to him, parts she knew were related to his brother.

She liked just talking to him, learning more about him, both who he was as a pirate and also his life before he found the Jolly Roger and his new calling. It had taken a lot for him to talk of his brother, Liam, she knew that, but eventually he had begun to speak of the man with her. As a result she had shared some of her own life and past too. They understood each other more as a result, had bonded over past pains and losses.

After hearing about his past, she empathized with him, with his need for revenge. Especially when she had finally learned who Milah was from his own lips and not the whispers of the crew. She understood what he must have felt losing the woman he was sure was his true love to the Dark One. At the same time though, she could understand why the Dark One had reacted as he had. Milah was the Dark One's wife, had left him for Hook, that level of infidelity would, of course, be punishable by death in the most extreme cases…and she supposed it didn't get much more extreme for the Dark One. There had been a king or two in the past to execute their wives for infidelity, and from what she knew of the Dark One, he was as good as counted as a king in the Enchanted Forest.

Did she agree that women who found love with someone other than their husbands should be killed? Not at all. Never. Love was too precious to be punished for. She put the blame on the husbands for how unfair the punishment was. Men took mistresses, she knew that, especially kings, yet they were never condemned for it, but the women were for taking other lovers. It was terrible. If someone was unhappy in a marriage, if one of the party, it didn't matter who, found true and genuine love with someone else, the marriage should be ended so that the parties could be free to love who they wanted. Even if it really was just ONE of the couple that loved another, the one that didn't, shouldn't they let their spouse go? If they loved them even a little, wouldn't they want them to be happy even if it meant the marriage would be over? Loving someone meant their happiness over your own.

In that sense, she understood Kilian's desire for revenge very well. He loved Milah, he truly had, and she had been murdered in front of him, had her heart crushed and there was nothing he could do to bring her back. She had cried for him when he finally told her the tales of his brother and Milah. He seemed startled by it when it happened, that someone who hadn't met either person was upset over it, he'd seemed even more startled when he realized she was pained for HIM, for how he was hurting even now over those situations.

It meant a lot to her to know he trusted her with talking about his past, in admitting the things he had done, both good and bad. She knew a fair deal of his past now, she knew of the men and women he had killed, the trophies he'd taken from them, the places he'd plundered, the battles he'd fought, the treasures he'd gathered, enemies he'd made. He knew a lot about her life as well, her childhood, the people she'd lost, why her mother was so important to her, how she didn't know her father, the things she had experienced in her life.

He had seemed…almost in awe of her when he had learned about her past as a result of talking about his own. He had admitted that he wasn't sure how she could possibly exist when he heard it all. He had called her sweet and kind, gentle-hearted and…while he had often called her that as an almost insult in the past…he had meant it in compliment that time. He had been so awed in how she was STILL like that despite her past. She had suffered nearly as much as he had, and yet she had had the fortitude to not allow the darkness to take her over and turn her into what he was.

He had admitted, at that point, that maybe he had been wrong about her, being a pirate that is, if she could endure that and remain uncorrupted, then she was clearly stronger than he had thought she was.

He hadn't SAID he was wrong, but he had said he MIGHT be wrong.

She was determined to prove him wrong though.

She smiled, realizing he was still waiting for an answer, "I love it, Killian, thank you for this."

He gave a smile at that, turning to signal the barmaid over, focusing on her again, "Let us hope this time there shall be no more sudden brawls. While I may have recovered from the last one, I'd rather not repeat it in such company."

She rolled her eyes, "I'll be able to help more this time if it does happen."

Last time all she'd managed to do was knock a man out with a bottle.

"Well let us hope you don't have to prove that," he smirked, a teasing doubt in his voice that had her huffing. It made him laugh, she did, how flustered she got when he said something that irritated her. It was…fun…to make her cross. She was so often in good spirits that it seemed like a challenge and a victory to him to get her to even be annoyed, and it seemed like HE was quite a success at that.

"I'll have you know," she defended, "I could handle any man here."

He snorted, "You couldn't even handle Smee," he remarked, reaching out to take the tankard of rum that the barmaid brought over, "I doubt you could handle this rum."

Lyssa gave him a small glare at the challenge, before reaching out to take it from him before he could even bring it to his lips, taking a large mouthful of it…and doing her best not to spit it all out over the table and him when the taste of it hit her tongue.

Killian let out a loud laugh at her expression. She was clearly grimacing with her mouth completely full of rum, making for such a hysterical picture that he couldn't help himself. It clearly tasted utterly disgusting and foul to her and she was doing her level best not to spit it out but to actually swallow it, and he was quite sure he was about to die of laughter when she managed to get it down her throat.

Lyssa coughed as the liquid burned going down, constantly trying to scrap her tongue along her teeth and roof of her mouth to get the taste away, but it wasn't helping.

"That…is disgusting," she managed to get out, coughing more, shuddering at the memory of the taste. Setting the tankard on the table with a little thump so she wouldn't spill the rest of it in her coughing fit, "You LIKE this?"

"Aye," Hook reached out for the tankard and slid it back before him, grinning at her, "It's…an acquired taste."

"One I don't think I'll ever get," she muttered, clearing her throat, her coughing starting to cease.

"Well then, I was right all along," his grin morphed into a smirk.

"About what?" she blinked at him, swallowing hard as she felt a little woozy…

"This," he held up the tankard, "Is a pirate's drink of choice. If you can't drink rum, you can never be a pirate."

"That's not true," she tried to defend, though her voice sounded weak…almost muffled to her ears, she looked around, feeling like the sounds around her had gotten further away, that they were muffling too, she couldn't really make anything out and it was starting to worry her.

"It IS," Killian insisted.

She looked back at him, feeling the breath leave her as she saw him, he was moving…no, not him, the room was moving. But he was stretching? It was like she was looking at him but the edges around him were all hazy and warping and…

"Killian…" she murmured.

"It is part of the code and…" he cut off suddenly when she stood, her hands braced on the table, but looking entirely too unsteady on her feet, "What is it, love?" he stood quickly, moving to her side.

"I…I don't…" she tried to take a step towards the door, only to collapse right before his eyes.

He quickly caught her before she hit the ground, looking around in alarm for his crew. Smee was lucky enough to be looking over and quickly ran to his captain's side, "What happened?" his first mate moved to kneel beside the fallen girl, grabbing her wrist to check on her.

Hook shook his head, his mind racing. It couldn't have been the rum, just a mouthful, even for a lightweight like Lyssa who likely hadn't had much liquor in her life, it wouldn't do this to her. But…

His eyes widened and he shot up, nearly pushing Lyssa into Smee's arms to grab the tankard off the table, sniffing it quickly, his expression hardening when he realized that it _wasn't_ JUST rum.

"She's been poisoned," he muttered, slamming the tankard down on the table so hard that it shattered. He turned, leaning down to pick her up, "Grab Starkey, and get the men to the ship," he barked, storming out of the tavern with Lyssa in his arms.

He knew the poison in the drink, he could recognize the smell of it. It was too weak though, too diluted in the drink to have actually been able to kill, it smelled too faintly to be mixed properly enough to do damage to him, the person it was clearly made for. But for someone like Lyssa it very well might kill her.

He didn't have time to scour through the tavern and find the culprit was that had tried to poison him. The tavern was full and to start a brawl now would only end badly for him and his crew and waste all their time in getting Lyssa treated. He needed to get her back somewhere safe, back to the ship, to rest and get Starkey, their own version of a physician, to see if they had anything in the storerooms that would help her endure the poison racing through her.

~8~

He_ never_ should have let her take that first sip of rum.

Hook inwardly cursed himself as he sat at Lyssa's bedside in her quarters, what used to be their sickroom. It had been that enough during Lyssa's stay there, her first few days on the ship she hadn't been able to leave that room for how often she was ill in the bucket he knew she still kept under her bed for off days or particularly rocky waters. He never, ever wanted it to be used in the way it was now, as a literal sickroom, with Lyssa lying so pale and weak on the bed, fighting against a poison that should have been HIS burden to bear.

He had gotten her to the ship in record time, ordered the few men that had remained behind to fetch the ipecac. They had managed to get Lyssa to drink it down, the girl vomiting up everything in her stomach afterwards, including what they had hoped was most of the poisonous rum.

It hadn't been enough though, not according to Starkey. The man had come from a well to do background before they'd turned pirate, had been assigned to the ship as the physician before they'd set off on the quest that drove them down the path they were still on. But he retained his medical knowledge and his examination of Lyssa's symptoms upon returning to the boat with the rest of the crew was enough to say that Lyssa was still very much in danger.

He had ordered the men out of the room with a fearsome snarl that hadn't made an appearance in near a year. The men scrambled out, but Smee had come back with a small bowl of cold water and a rag for his captain, to help. Lyssa had gotten so warm because of the poison, she was sweating even as she was shaking now, her skin a deathly pale, her face scrunched in pain, even her breathing was labored though it came in short breaths.

He would ever refuse to admit it, but sitting there, tending to her, draping the cold compress to her forehead to try and do something (anything) helpful…it was breaking his heart to see her like this.

Hook swallowed hard, feeling something growing inside him that he had refused to name until that moment when she let out the most heart-wrenching whimper. His heart felt like there was a constriction around it, his stomach a lead pit within it, dread filling his bones, and, in the very depths of his soul…he felt _fear_.

He hadn't felt this fear in…so long he almost thought it impossible a thing to feel anymore, at least from him, especially for another woman.

But he felt it now, clawing at him, nearly driving him mad as he alone tended to her, refusing to let the other men in. It was HIS fault after all, if anything happened to her. If he had just stopped teasing her for a moment, if he had just noticed before she collapsed that something was wrong, if he'd never taken her to that tavern in the first place…

She might not be on death's door.

He inwardly cursed himself again, it was his fault, it would be his entire fault if she died and she just…she couldn't.

That was it, she _couldn't_ die, she couldn't just…go, not like that, not someone like her.

He looked away, feeling the oddest stirring of tears in his eyes. Now_ that_ was something that hadn't happened in nearly 300 years either. And even if he refused to let them fall, it didn't stop them from starting to form.

He swallowed hard, drawing in a deep breath, willing himself to believe, to hope (as dangerous as that was), that she would be well, that she would recover.

The world would be far darker a place to lose such a source of light and laughter and goodness.

He looked back down at her, if this was to be her last moments with him, he wouldn't waste it looking at the walls, but focusing on her even as he prayed this would NOT be her last moments. She would have to live, she was too strong and stubborn to just die like this, not from a mouthful of poison that hadn't even been meant for her. She couldn't just go…

She couldn't just leave him like that.

His jaw clenched as did his hand as he felt the reason for his fear flare up within him. Smee, of all people, had made him realize it just after the first tavern excusion, what he was feeling for the girl, a feeling that was so familiar yet so different to things he'd felt in the past. He had denied it, of course he had, he had but one love, as a pirate, and that was the sea, that was what a pirate's first love should be.

Even Milah, for all her fire and flare and fierceness, had come second to the sea, to him. And when he had lost her…he still had the sea, he still had his revenge, the open waters giving him the freedom to plot it. That was how it should have always been, his first love was the sea.

When it had become Lyssa…he honestly didn't know.

How on earth_ Smee_, of all people, had realized it before HE had, well that was a whole other conundrum.

But the point still stood, somehow, over the year he had known her, Lyssa had wormed her way into his heart, under his skin, into his very being.

He was sure he might love her, maybe more than the sea itself, and he hadn't told her, he hadn't even admitted it to himself, not fully.

And now he was being confronted with the possibility of losing her, losing her before she had ever heard him say it, before she had any notion he felt that way at all.

When Smee had brought it up, he'd tried to keep it buried, not wanting it to be true. Milah had been his lady love, he had firmly believed, for centuries, that there would be no other woman out there that could make him love again. And then this…slim slip of a girl with ginger hair and a personality so different from his pirate lass came along and…it made no sense to him, at all, how she had done it. She was kind where Milah was cut-throat, she was gentle where Milah was vicious, she was soft where Milah was hard, and she was pure where Milah was…well, not exactly innocent. She smiled and laughed and she saw the good in everything…she saw the good in him.

Lyssa and Milah couldn't have been more different than the night was to the day, and so they were. Milah with her dark coloring, her drive for adventure, her craftiness, she was the night. Lyssa, and her light hair, her wide smiles, her honestly, she was the day, she was the sun…she was something that had risen from the perpetual night he felt like he had fallen into when Milah had been cut down.

He needed her, more than he ever wanted to admit, more than the sea. She made him feel…well, she made him _feel_. She made him smile and laugh and she looked at him with such understanding and trust. She made him feel just a little like he'd gotten back what he had lost in his brother and Milah's deaths. She gave him just a little happiness back. She made him feel like he wasn't just a villain, wasn't just Hook, but that…that there was still a little Killian Jones left in him, still a little of the man his brother had loved and been proud of.

She refused to call him Hook because of that, because he was 'so much more than just a hook,' she had insisted, he was Killian, he had been born Killian and Killian was WHO he was, whereas Hook was WHAT he was. And, to her, WHO a person was was far, FAR more important than the titles and labels they held.

He couldn't lose her now, he couldn't lose her after all the other people he'd loved that he'd lost.

He should have told her sooner, maybe she wouldn't have felt the need to return to the tavern that night, maybe he could have made it a trip for his crew and they could have stayed on the ship, just the two of them. They'd be on the deck, looking at the stars as he taught her to navigate by them. And she would be safe and well and healthy and…

He held his breath as she let out a shuddering cough and a groan, breathing again only when she continued to breathe herself.

"Please," he muttered, reaching out to place his hand over hers, a new cool compress on her head, "Lyssa...Analyssa," he swallowed, glancing at the door to make sure there were no sounds on the other side of Smee coming to check on her yet again…though he doubted it after he'd threatened to run the man through with his hook if he tried it again…before he turned back to her, "You once said that you'd stay with me," he reminded her, "That you chose this ship, this crew, this life, above one of safety on land. I…hope," he spoke the word as though it pained him, and in a way it did, because if she died now he knew he would never feel hope again, "That you also meant you chose ME. You want to be a part of this crew, Lyssa, then you follow my orders. And, as your captain…I order you not to go," he cursed himself again for how his voice cracked right at the end. He was a bloody pirate, he was stronger than this! He cleared his throat, "I order you to stay. Stay on this boat, stay in this life…stay with me. I…am not ready for you to leave me. I don't…" he let out a breath, not used to speaking his feelings. He never did, even when they spoke to each other, he often cut himself off or changed the subject to avoid this, but…if she could hear him, if she could hear him in her fever dreams, if she knew what he felt, maybe she would come back, "I don't want to lose you too. Please," he squeezed her hand, "Don't make me lose you as well. I cannot handle more loss, I would not be able to handle losing you as well. Everything good in me, everything you have reminded me I still possess, it would be lost, if I lose you."

He was silent, struggling with himself, struggling with saying the words he had once swore only to say to Milah, "I…" he hesitated longer, "I have something to tell you," he finally said, determined now NOT to say it, not till she could truly hear it, not till she could…hopefully…say it back, "But I will not speak it till you wake. So if you wish to hear it…you need to fight, and you need to come back, savvy?" he waited, "I'll take your silence as an accord."

If she were conscious right now, she would have been huffing at his presumption, but he needed this, he needed to think, to feel, like she HAD agreed, like she would really come back to him.

Right now, despite how dangerous it was, he needed to_ hope_.

~8~

As daylight began to peek into the small, round window of the sickroom, one Killian Jones jerked up, feeling his head starting to droop, feeling himself about to fall asleep and willing himself to wake up once more, as he had done through the whole of the night whenever sleep crept up on him. He was _not_ going to give into that, not now, not when Lyssa needed him and needed attention. He was NOT about to pass this duty off to one of his crew, this was on him, this was his fault, his responsibility, his…

"Morning."

His head shot up this time, his eyes wide, turning to see that Lyssa was awake, seeming weak still, her skin rather pale yet and with a fine layer of sweat on her brow from where the compress had fallen off as she moved to look at him, but she was awake…and smiling at him.

Of course she would be.

Of COURSE the bloody girl would be smiling at him despite nearly dying.

How else would a woman like Lyssa react to a near death by poisoning but to SMILE at someone when she woke!

Yet despite his frustration at how she was just smiling at him after scaring him half to death, all he could muster was a weary, "Aye," back to her.

Lyssa's smile tightened, "I'm sorry."

"What the bloody hell do YOU have to be sorry about!?" he nearly shouted at her, only the wince she gave at his expression stopped it from reaching that volume, but the anger in his voice hadn't just disappeared because of it.

"I was poisoned, wasn't I?" she guessed, "I don't think I'd feel this badly if it was just the rum I drank…"

He let out a breath, "Aye," he repeated, "No doubt one of my enemies saw me in the tavern and got to my drink before the barmaid could bring it to us."

"Oh," she nodded slightly at that, "Then I'm only half-sorry," he shot her a questioning look, "If YOU had drank the rum first, then you would have been poisoned. And I wouldn't want that."

"And you think _I_ wanted this to happen to YOU?" he gave her an incredulous look, "Lyssa..."

"I heard you," she cut in, just _knowing_ he was going to go on a rant about how she didn't deserve to be poisoned and how it was all his fault and how they were never going to a tavern again no matter what the men wanted and she really, REALLY didn't want to hear it or have to argue with him about it right now, her head hurt rather badly.

"What?" he blinked.

Her smile was back, small and a little hesitant, "When I was…sleeping," she offered, not wanting to mention the 'p' word and set him off again, "I heard you talking to me," she eyed him, holding his gaze, seeing him not deny it, "You didn't want me to leave you."

"The crew," he corrected instantly, inwardly smacking himself for it, he'd spent so many weeks now trying to deny what he felt and reason off everything that he said to or did around her that it had almost become automatic.

"And you," her smile grew a little more sure, "I wasn't THAT far gone just yet," she gave a weak laugh, "You said you wanted to tell me something when I woke up," she squeezed the hand he hadn't even realized he was still holding, "I'm awake."

"Right," he cleared his throat, suddenly feeling off kilter and at a loss, suddenly wishing he had just said it last night instead of needing to actually say it to her face now, with her eyes looking into his, "I did say that."

She squeezed his hand again, "It's just us, Killian," she reminded him, "There is nothing you can't tell me, you know that."

"I do," he let out a breath, he had learned the hard way that he really COULD tell her anything, even the worst of his past, and she would truly listen and take it in and...and NOT judge him for it. She may not agree with it or like it, but she didn't just ignore it like it never happened, she accepted it as his past and was silent about her feelings on it, even if her eyes gave her away regardless, "As is the same for you."

"I know," she rolled her eyes at his stalling, "But I am back, I'm awake, I'm going to get better. And I believe we have an accord?" she lifted an amused eyebrow at him, "Come on, pirate, keep your word."

He actually managed a laugh at that, for how anyone could expect a PIRATE to keep their word, but he knew she was teasing him, it sometimes surprised him how easily she could get him to laugh like this, freely and without guilt, without feeling as though he were betraying his brother and Milah for being happy once more.

"Killian?" she asked when his laughter died down.

He nodded, swallowing hard before taking a breath, "I…Lyssa I…that is to say…" he looked down at his hand holding hers, her thumb stroking over his in comfort, and looked back at her, determined, he was a PIRATE, he should be able to say this, he should be braver than he was, it was just Lyssa, "I wanted you to know…that I…think I might…love you."

Lyssa blinked at that, "I think I might love you too," she repeated, a soft smile on her face.

"What?" this time it was HIS turn to blink in shock, whether it was from how easily she had said it, how without hesitation it had been, or that she had even SAID it, he wasn't sure, "You…do?"

She smiled a little wider, "I think I have for a while now," she nodded.

"But you're not sure you do?" he frowned at that, Lyssa always seemed the sort to know what she (and half the bloody crew) was feeling all the time.

"Are _you_?" she countered, understanding in her eye, "I have only ever loved my family, and this crew as though they were my family. I haven't loved anyone else in any other way but…I _do_ know what I feel for you is…similar, but not the same, as what I feel for them. It feels…stronger."

He nodded at that, understanding why she had said what she had, "I didn't think I could love anyone after Milah," he admitted as well, "I didn't think it was possible. I feel something for you," he almost smiled, "That is similar, but not the same, as what I felt for Milah. I think it's love."

"I do too," Lyssa gave him a little smile, moving to sit up in the bed more, Killian getting up to help her adjust, but being forced to sit on the edge of the bed closer to her when she reached out to take hold of his hook, not letting go, "I suppose…we'll find out together if it is or not."

"Aye," he nodded, "Together."

"I hope it is love, though," she spoke, just a little shyly, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, "It would be nice to be in love, I think."

"Aye, it is," he agreed, remembering that time from so long ago, though the memories and emotions almost felt faded in his mind. He looked back at her, observing her smiling at him, he did know a few ways to see if it was truly love they felt, and one…one he would certainly feel better doing away from the prying eyes (and vocal opinions) of his crew, "May I kiss you, Lyssa?"

Lyssa gave a small laugh at that, not having ever expected in a million years that the dread pirate, Captain Hook, would ask her permission to kiss her, "I thought a pirate takes what he wants?" she recalled an old lesson from him about how to be a proper pirate. Well, Captain Hook wouldn't ask that, but…perhaps just Killian Jones would.

He started to smirk at that, considering her words, how she hadn't said no, "He does," was all the warning he gave before he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers in what was likely the most chaste kiss of his life.

Perhaps there was something in giving small pecks instead of passionate kisses, though…because he could feel in just that small connection of his lips to hers, a spark that roared to life in his heart, and a desire for more.

And he knew, more surely, that yes…it was likely love.

Because when he pulled back and saw her smiling at him, he didn't lean in to take more of her kisses for himself, because Lyssa wasn't like that, she wasn't that sort of person, he very much doubted she had ever been kissed before he had kissed her just then…

And he didn't want to push her.

That was surely a sign of love, of a true, honest love, that he would be willing to wait and not push her for more, that he could silence the greedy pirate in him and only take what she would give and give some of himself in return. It had to be a sign that it was love that he truly felt he would wait for her, as long as it took.

A/N: I wanted to add in the idea of a maybe-love between Hook and Lyssa at this point. This takes place, likely about a month before Emma and Snow appear, just about, which is time enough for them to really know what they feel by then. But here, they're both so new at this, in their own ways. Lyssa is young, she hasn't been in a situation where she felt like she might love-love someone in a non-platonic manner, so she's trying to work out if what she feels for Hook is that sort of romantic love everyone has grown up hearing stories about. And Hook, he's convinced himself for centuries that he wouldn't find love again in anyone but Milah, so he has to question and rediscover if it's truly that sort of love he feels for Lyssa or some remnant of a different sort of love.

I like to think they both do truly love each other, once they have time to settle and explore their feelings, they'll realize that too, but in this moment, they're both starting new with each other and that's all sorts of emotions and questions coming up :) I wanted them to be honest with each other about how they felt, how much they felt, and their concerns about it. I think Lyssa would be that open, and Hook has grown to care about her very much and wouldn't want to 'lead her on' or make her question his own feelings for her, so he's honest with her about his concerns too :)

There will be a very key moment to come between this one and when Emma and Snow appear in the Forest again that will really confirm to them that it's love...and I'm grinning so evilly right now to get to it }:)

Some notes on reviews...

I can say we'll find out soon who Lyssa's mother is ;) I like to think Lyssa and Piper both view heroes and villains as not being black and white, but how they both reached that view will be very different ;) We'll have to wait and see more about Lyssa's mysteries though ;)

I'm glad you like the different viewpoints :) I try to do that in all my stories, especially the ones where I've written other OCs in the same show or movie or book, just to explore different points of view and try to see how different personalities focus and think of different things :)

I can understand that view of Disney. It's like in the show, the heroes keep going on about having hope and how things will work out because they're heroes. Almost like they think they don't even really have to TRY or DO anything and they'll still win, because they're heroes and that's just how it goes. Which is so wrong and paints a bad picture of them :( And the bad guys, even when they try to help, people are always so quick to turn them down or ignore them or find some way to accuse them of doing evil just because of their pasts :/ Lyssa is going to challenge them, in a different way than Piper has, with trying to see that everything isn't black or white and that it takes much more to be a hero than luck and a lot more to really being a villain than what people observer and call evil ;)

It makes sense to me, no worries ;) I think what has to be kept in mind with the last chapter is, the thoughts on Snow are coming entirely from Lyssa and Mulan's POV, and they have NO idea what the 28 years were like in Storybrooke or what Mary Margaret went through while she was there ;) They are operating solely from 'this is what I know of Snow White from the stories of the Forest' and have had 0 information about Mary Margaret or her challenges in Storybrooke. So when they see Snow White, they JUST see Snow White, they can't see her being both Snow _and_ Mary Margaret (like how Charming gave that speech that now everyone in Storybrooke is BOTH their cursed selves and original selves merged in one). They also look at Emma, as Snow's daughter, as if expecting her to be just like Snow and Prince Charming in the sense that she MUST be a hero if she broke a 'villain's' curse, so it makes little sense to them seeing Snow or Emma acting like they are. It's like Regina talking to Robin after she finds him in New York, understanding something is one thing but actually SEEING it is another. They know the curse brought people to 'that Storybrooke place' but they haven't experienced it or the 28 years of actually living out their lives on a loop. They know OF it, but they don't know what it actually did or what it was like to be a part of it, or what would come from enduring it. So to them, Snow White is (or should be) the same Snow White that existed just before the curse, they don't know she's also Mary Margaret and has the woman's cursed memories too ;) So I do understand that Snow's been through a lot, but from Lyssa and Mulan's POV, they don't know what all of it was so to them, Snow isn't acting like Snow and they don't understand why, so it makes them wary and questioning of her ;)


	9. Queen of Hearts

Queen of Hearts

Lyssa bit her lip as she followed Cora and Hook down to the prisons near Snow White's old castle, where the Dark One had been held prisoner so many years ago. It wasn't that she was biting her lip to keep from speaking, from voicing how wrong it was to use a person's heart like she was observing Cora doing to Aurora right at that very moment as they walked, but…it was just what she did. She had no problem staying silent around Cora, the woman's reputation alone was enough to frighten anyone to silence, and she had enough personal interaction with Cora to be that much more terrified of her than just from stories. Keeping silent and holding her tongue weren't the issues.

It was the discomfort of the entire situation. Seeing Cora, the Queen of Hearts, holding a heart, knowing she could easily crush it when SHE had promised Mulan that they would get Cora to free Aurora, it bothered her. Had she known that Hook had taken Aurora's heart to give to Cora, she wouldn't have ever offered the woman the compass. But she hadn't known, and Cora now had the box in her possession. Aurora was still at Cora's mercy and she felt awful about it. Because Aurora HAD been nice to her, hadn't wanted her to be taken prisoner, and she hated to see people controlled the way Cora was controlling the princess. It wasn't right to have that much power and control over someone else.

She was disappointed Killian had done that, had given the heart to Cora, not very surprised, but still fairly disappointed.

"…_was_ ink in the cell…" she looked up, hearing Mulan speaking as they reached the bottom of the stairs, knowing that the four women were searching Rumpelstiltskin's cell for squid ink that was said to be able to trap someone with magic, even nullify their powers for a short while. Cora had been listening in on the heroes' conversation through Aurora's heart and knew all about their plans.

"Son of a bitch!" Emma cursed.

Lyssa looked over as she heard Cora murmuring to the heart in her hand, not whispering to it words for Aurora to speak, but gripping it firmly with commands for the princess to follow.

Just as they stepped around the corner, they could see Aurora turn and grab a rock, throwing it at a lever outside the cell and causing the door to fall shut before them, trapping them within.

"Aurora, what are you doing?!" Emma demanded, rounding on the princess who looked completely startled and confused as to what she was actually doing.

"Helping me," Cora called as they walked up, coming to a stop before the cell, Cora in the middle of her and Killian.

Emma glared at them both, seeing the ashes in Hook's hold, the compass in Lyssa's, knowing that her enemies now had everything they needed to get to Storybrooke where her son was, and lunging at them, trying desperately to reach out of the bars and grab them. Only Lyssa reacted to the action, jumping back with a gasp.

Cora seemed unimpressed, rolling her eyes at the blonde's efforts, "Don't waste your energy, dear. Rumpelstiltskin himself couldn't escape from this cell. Thank you, Aurora," Cora smirked at her, "We couldn't have done it without you."

"Why would you do this?" Emma shot a glare at the princess.

Even Snow White seemed to think the worst, "How could you?"

"Oh, don't blame her," Cora mock-sighed, "She was only doing what she was told," she held up her hand, revealing Aurora's heart to them.

Emma looked green at the sight of it, "You took her heart?"

"Actually, _I_ did," Hook stepped up, his jaw tense as he refused to look at Lyssa for his words, "It was a _gift_."

He needed Lyssa to understand that.

When she found out that he'd been the one to take the princess's heart and deliver it to Cora, she hadn't been happy. She hadn't expressly said it, hadn't complained to him or chastised him for it. But he could tell in her look and her stance, she wasn't pleased with what he'd done.

She never spoke up against it, for the most part, in all the time he'd known her. She let him be himself and kept her comments about his actions to herself.

He had honestly been shocked the first time he had done something nefarious, as a pirate was wont to do, and she hadn't ranted or raved or railed against him for it. She was a hero, through and through, or so he had thought when she first joined his crew. He had thought she would be angry with him, against it, and very vocal about how it was wrong and evil and dark and villainous and all the other often used words that heroes came up with to describe villains and their deeds…but she'd just get this funny look to her, like she was just sad that he had made that choice.

But it was HIS choice to make.

She had said that when he'd asked her once, why she never spoke up when she disagreed with his methods.

It was his ship, his crew, his life, his quest, his reasonings for his actions. She may not like it, she may be very angry or upset about it, but it was HIS choice in the end. She wasn't the captain, she wasn't the crew, not entirely, she wasn't his keeper either. She wasn't going to berate him for what he chose to do, she wasn't going to threaten him or give ultimatums, she wasn't going to change him. She had fallen in love with the man he was, all of him, the light and dark parts, and while she wasn't happy with some of the things his darkness made him do, she wasn't going to force a different choice on him.

She would hope, she'd said, that one day he would make a different one, that one day he would be at a better place in his life where he wouldn't feel the need to resort to darkness to see his desire through.

He had regretted asking her that question ever since that day, because every decision he made, he always ended up second guessing himself. He always ended up wondering if it was the right choice, if there was another option, probably a harder option to see through but…a better one.

He didn't know how she'd done it with just that remark, but she'd made him start to wonder what he would have said or done, back before Milah, before his brother, before he'd become a pirate, what would Killian Jones have decided to do instead of Captain Hook.

And she was so bloody manipulative! Even when she wasn't being so, even when she didn't have a manipulative bone in her body, even when she wasn't trying to do it, she still made him question things and…change. Change exactly as she had hoped and wanted and he knew, he KNEW she hadn't said a single thing to him for _that_ reason either. She made him..WANT to change, in small ways, but he saw the changes more and more each day. It was all her fault.

It was his fault too.

If he hadn't gone and fallen in love with her, he would have been just fine in his villainous, pirate ways.

But having known her, having her around, he found himself almost wanting to go back to being the man he used to be. _Not_ fully, _not_ entirely, but just…small things really. She had such a pure heart, and he had such a blackened one that, sometimes, he felt like he didn't deserve her in his life. And that led to him wondering how long she would remain in it, how long before he did something too evil for her to want to stay, how long before his luck ran out and his fate to always be the villain drove away this new chance at a happy ending? Villains didn't seem to ever have a happy ending, and even though he didn't know if Lyssa was his...she still represented a possibility to him, she made him..._happy_, and that was one half of the equation wasn't it? So maybe, if he was better, a little less villain and a tad more hero, he might be able to keep her in it, see what came of it.

She was such a good person, and just in BEING one, she made him want to be one too. She never asked him to change, she never tried to force him to or threaten him to or even challenge him to. She just…was. She was herself and it made him want to deserve her. He wanted to be a man that deserved her, and only a good man would. He didn't try to do 'good' things because he wanted to impress her or change her opinion on him, he didn't do them because he thought that was what she wanted him to do. She didn't have a bad opinion of him, he didn't need to change her mind about him, she loved him. She actually loved him, all of him. She wouldn't ever accept any of his better actions if he'd done them for the reason of thinking he needed to do it to please her or stay on her good side. She hated when people were manipulated into doing things just because it seemed like what others wanted them to do, and if he had done anything good because he thought she'd want him to instead of because he genuinely felt the desire to do it, she wouldn't have liked it. He didn't do things because he thought she wanted him to, he did them because the sort of man that would do good things was the sort of man that would deserve her, and he wanted that to be him. And if that had to do with the greedy pirate in him not wanting to give her up, well, that made sense to him too.

He had a long, LONG road to go in that quest, but he was sure, more and more each day, that Lyssa was worth it.

So he needed her to understand he hadn't taken Aurora's heart to be malicious or to put a death sentence over her head, but because they were dealing with the Queen of Hearts. What other gift would you give the woman if you were trying to get back on her good side BUT a heart? It was all he could think of, all he had access to, to earn Cora's trust back and earn the two of them passage to Storybrooke with her. He had done it for her, in his own way, it was his way of showing care, he wanted her to be able to get back to her mother just as much as he wanted to seek his revenge against the Dark One. And if that was what it took, he would do it all over again, they were too close to their goal to consider morality now.

He hadn't…liked taking the girl's heart, at the very least, he didn't like the idea of Cora possessing that level of control over someone. Imagining if she'd had Lyssa's heart the same way? He'd be furious, he'd likely try to attack Cora as well. But this wasn't Lyssa, this was Aurora, and he still didn't feel entirely comfortable or happy with what he'd done. Even if there was a small niggling regret in him about it, that seemed to mean something to Lyssa, her expression had grown softer when he admitted that, he hadn't planned on it or thought to do it, but it had turned out well. It was a gift to Cora, yes, but it was a gift to Lyssa as well, safe passage to Storybrooke for the two of them.

Lyssa's head snapped over as she heard Aurora let out a pained gasp, seeing that Cora was squeezing her heart, causing her immense pain, and frowned at the woman, "Stop it," she said, before she even realized she had spoken. Her eyes widened in fear as Cora turned to her, an eyebrow raised though her grip on the heart had lightened, releasing Aurora, "I…" she swallowed hard, "We're wasting time?"

That was the best thing she could come up with for getting the woman to stop that sounded reasonable and not like she was ordering the woman around out of sympathy for Aurora. It WAS true, standing there and toying with the heroes would only make them angrier and more determined to escape. The longer they were there, the less time they were spending getting to Storybrooke.

Even still, she found herself praying that Cora wouldn't be angry with her for speaking out.

It seemed to do the trick though for Cora gave a minute nod, seeming to realize that point as well, "As much fun as this has been," the woman turned back to the heroes, Lyssa breathing out a deep sigh of relief at her outspoken words being overlooked, "Storybrooke awaits."

Lyssa stepped aside, giving Cora a wide berth as the woman turned to leave, Hook catching her eye as they moved to follow, a slight nod telling her that she had been right to stop Cora and that her excuse was a good one.

They had taken only two steps when Emma called out, "Hook. Wait," Lyssa paused as did Hook and Cora, all of them turning to face the heroes once more, Emma at the edge of the prison door, gripping the bars as she spoke through it, "Please don't do this. My_ son_ is in Storybrooke. He needs me."

"Perhaps you should've considered that before you abandoned me on that beanstalk," Hook frowned at her, stepping closer to the bars to glare at her.

Lyssa winced at that, "I DID warn you," she muttered, Mulan sending her a look for it, though she could see in the woman's expression that she had actually listened to her words and realized the same.

"You would've done the same," Emma defended.

"No," Lyssa spoke this time, "He wouldn't have, actually," she stepped up, beside Hook to face Emma, "Whatever you may think of pirates, you don't KNOW them. You know stories about them but…"

"You know stories about me," Snow White spoke, almost sounding to Lyssa as though she were trying to make it about her for a moment, "About Cora. But you sided with her anyway."

"I don't JUST know stories about you," Lyssa replied, "I KNOW you. And Cora, she IS the lesser of two evils. Killian thought the reverse, he was wrong. If you had bothered to get to know Killian," she returned her focus to Emma, ignoring Snow's shocked expression, "You would know he has his own code, he wouldn't have left you there. He would have had to climb down that beanstalk without you and fend off three other women, wouldn't he?"

Emma opened her mouth to argue that, but seemed to realize just then that…Lyssa was right. She had been so focused in thinking that Killian was going to steal the compass first and leave her up on the beanstalk, to betray her, that she acted first. If he had even tried it, he would have had to climb right down into the middle of her mother and Mulan and even Aurora. It wouldn't have been smart to do, and…he wouldn't have done it.

But she had.

"Do you know what this is, Emma?" Hook spoke, pulling something from his pocket and holding it up for her to see what appeared to be a dried up bean on a bit of metal, a necklace of sorts.

"The bean that the giant kept," Emma frowned at it, recognizing it from up the beanstalk.

"Yes, indeed. A pirate always keeps a souvenir of his conquest, but this? Well, this is much more than a mere trinket. This is a symbol. Something that was once magical, full of hope, possibility…now look at it," he made it sway a little, "Dried up, dead, useless. Much like you," he glared at her.

"Killian," Lyssa murmured, reaching out to rest a gentle hand on his arm.

He looked over at her, seeing her giving him a look that told him she understood exactly what he was feeling…and she was hurting for him.

He had put some level of trust in Emma when they went up the beanstalk, and she'd betrayed him. He had put some level of trust in the women below to guard Lyssa while he was away, and THEY betrayed him as well. He was bitter and angry both at himself for not seeing it coming, and at them for turning on him in the first place. He was angry and bitter at himself and them for the harm that came to HER from his actions as well. He was angry, he was hurt, and he wanted to hurt the one he felt was responsible, Emma.

And he could see it in just Lyssa's eyes, that she was hurting because he was in pain. He hadn't understood how that was possible, for someone to feel sad or hurt just because someone else was hurting or sad. He hadn't even felt that way with Milah. Oh she had been miserable with her husband, and he still hadn't felt her pain, that hadn't been why he'd taken her with him. What else was a pirate to do but steal another man's wife and have adventures? It wasn't because he felt for her, it wasn't because he wanted to save her from that fate. It had been more selfish at first, the thrill and pride that came with taking from another.

Over the centuries he hadn't understood how one person could feel for another's pain, and then Lyssa came around, and she was always so upset FOR him instead of by him, for the pains of his past, for the injuries he sustained defending her, for the sorrow he felt from his losses. Even now, just the fact that he was angry and upset was causing her to feel pain for him.

And that was always the last thing he wanted to do, cause her any semblance of pain.

"The time for making deals is done," Hook turned back to Emma, his jaw set, "Just as I'm done with you."

He turned, sliding his arm down Lyssa's touch, till he could take her hand in his own. He pressed a kiss to the back of it, turning her to lead her on ahead of him after Cora, who merely turned to lead the way.

~8~

"Where are we going?" Hook called as he and Lyssa walked behind Cora through a field in the middle of the woods not far from the castle.

"Lake Nostos," Cora replied, "The legend says its waters hold the power to restore what was once lost. It'll return magic to what remains of this wardrobe. And then, we'll be able to cross worlds. And here we are," she grinned as they arrived at the edge of the lake…which didn't look very much like a lake at all but a dried up basin in the ground.

"This is the lake?" Lyssa frowned, eyeing it, she had been there once before, and this...this did not look a thing like the lake she knew.

"I may be a simple pirate," Hook's tone seemed to mirror her expression, "But…I know one thing, lakes have water."

Cora rolled her eyes at them and waved her hand at the ground, using her magic to create a small geyser to gush up from the middle of the lake, refilling it with the water it had lost. She turned to look over her shoulder at them, smirking, "After everything we've been through, why do you still doubt me?"

The trio stood in silence for a long while, observing the waters rising higher and higher, till the lake was full once again, the geyser slowly trickling off.

Cora grinned widely at the sight of Lake Nostos restored to its former glory, "And now the ashes," she turned to Hook, "Would you care to do the honors?"

Hook nodded, reaching out to tip the bag containing them over, allowing the dust to drift in a swirl to the lake, watching them float and collect in the middle, the waters spinning faster and faster as the dust gathered…till a brilliant light shot out of it, a vortex opening.

"Here we go," Cora sighed, "We'll be in Storybrooke soon enough. I really look forward to seeing my daughter," she glanced over at Lyssa, the girl eyeing the vortex with a bit of trepidation, "The compass?"

Lyssa nodded, swallowing hard and holding it up before the woman, who grabbed onto a part of it, Hook leaning over to do the same.

"I told you I'd deliver you to Rumpelstiltskin," Cora glanced at him, and then to Lyssa, "And you to your dear mother," she smiled, "Now don't let go. Unless, you want to end up someplace that isn't Storybrooke."

Just as they were about to jump into the vortex, an arrow went flying by them, striking the compass right in the middle of their joined hands, causing them to drop it from the force of the hit.

They spun around to see Snow White rushing towards them, her bow drawn, another arrow notched, with Emma and Mulan joining her, swords drawn, "You're not going anywhere. This portal's taking us home. The compass," she called to her daughter, "Get it!"

Cora glared at her, speaking to Hook and Lyssa though, "Find it first. I'll take care of them."

Hook and Lyssa looked at each other as Cora shot a fireball at the trio rushing her, Mulan deflecting it with her sword.

"Go," Hook turned Lyssa to the edge of the water, "I'll guard you."

Lyssa nodded and frantically headed for the edge of the water, searching for the compass that had fallen somewhere nearby, she was sure of it.

She didn't even look up as the sound of the fight went on around her, she trusted Hook to do as he said and guard her back while she searched. Cora would be more than capable of handling Snow and Mulan herself, and if Emma tried to attack her…she knew Hook would never allow that. He had gotten worse injuries stopping men twice as large and many times more deadly and skilled with swords than Emma was…and she had betrayed him too, he would not go easy on her for it.

She glanced over only when she caught something out of the corner of her eye, the bag that contained Aurora's heart falling towards the vortex. She was about to call out, try to reach for it, rush to it, do something to save it so it wouldn't be lost…when Hook leaned over and caught it by his hook. She let out a relieved breath and returned to her search, vaguely keeping her ears open for Hook if he needed help…

"You want this heart?" Hook called to the women, Mulan and Emma now both facing him down while Cora focused on Snow White, "You can have it."

"What?" Mulan shook her head, not sure what he was getting at.

"One condition," Hook glared at both women, "You swear, on your_ son's life_," he looked at Emma and said the words that made Lyssa freeze, her heart stopping in her chest, because he would only make the woman swear on the one thing most important in her life if it was something he NEEDED her to actually see through and keep her word about this time, "You take Lyssa with you to Storybrooke."

She spun around, her eyes wide in shock at what he'd just said.

Because he'd said HER, not himself too.

"No matter who wins this day, she gets to her mother," Hook was staring down Emma, half dangling the heart over the waters in threat, "Swear it and the heart is yours."

Emma glanced at Mulan, the woman looking stunned for all of a moment before turning a hard look to Emma, an expectant look. Emma sighed, knowing what it meant, she had made the mistake once before of turning her back on Hook and he had taken Aurora's heart as a result. Now…now she had a chance to right that wrong, in some small way.

"Deal."

"No!" Lyssa cried out even as Hook tossed the bag to Mulan, the warrior taking off to return it to Aurora, tossing Snow White her sword for more protection as she passed, "Killian!"

"Find the compass!" he nearly snapped at her, lunging at Emma, signaling that even though they had made the deal, it was for Lyssa and Lyssa alone, and he was still going to fight to ensure HE would make it to Storybrooke as well, "Lyssa, FIND it!"

Lyssa nearly jumped at the bark in his voice, but turned to try and find it. If she could just locate it before the others…then SHE would have it and SHE could decide who went with her to Storybrooke, and it would be Killian, it WOULD be!

She nearly fell onto her knees, ready to dig in the sand for the blasted compass, when she spotted it lying just behind a small brush of weeds and grabbed it.

"Ooh!" she cheered, "Ooh, I found it!" she spun around, a wide smile on her face at having gotten the compass first…only to see Emma, who Hook had managed to flip onto her back, reach her sword that fell only inches away and use the hilt of it to punch Hook in the face, knocking him to the side, knocking him out completely, "Killian!"

She ran to Hook's prone form, ignoring Emma as she ran to assist her mother facing down Cora, "Killian," she tried to shake him, "Killian, wake up! Wake up! Come on, Killian, please…please you can't do this to me, you can't stay here…"

And she knew he'd be condemned to remaining there if he didn't wake up. The fight going on behind her, it would either be Cora to come out victorious or the heroes, and either way…she needed him to be awake. Cora wouldn't bother with him if he was too much to move with them, she'd as good as leave him there, one less problem she'd have to deal with in Storybrooke, but the same was true for the heroes too. Emma had only sworn to take HER with them and not Hook and she needed him to be awake, if he was, then they were a little more even, two on two if the heroes managed to defeat Cora.

"Please, Killian, please wake up!" she almost made to slap him, having seen him do that to his own men to rouse them, but she couldn't bring herself to do it and tried to tap him on the cheeks instead, shaking him harder, "Killian! You need to wake up! You need to go to Storybrooke. For your revenge, remember? The Dark One is there. And for me, please, you need to wake up and…"

"NO!"

She looked up, hearing Emma cry out, her breath leaving her as she saw Cora with her hand in Emma's chest, trying to pull her heart out…but…it seemed like she was struggling to do it.

Only a moment later, Lyssa gasped as a white wave of energy shot out from Emma, pushing Cora back, causing her to disappear as though she'd been banished.

"No," Lyssa breathed, shaking her head, and looking at Killian, still unconscious, Emma's blow having hit him harder than any of them realized, feeling tears filling her eyes as her fate seemed clearer and clearer with each passing second he remained unresponsive, "Killian…" her voice started to shake, seeing Snow checking on her daughter only a moment before grabbing her arm, the two women looking over at her, "Killian, wake up!"

She managed one more shake before she felt herself being hauled to her feet, trapped between Emma and Snow White's hold as they dragged her, literally kicking and screaming, towards the vortex.

The last thing she saw before she was falling backwards into it as the two heroes leapt forward, was Killian just starting to stir awake…

~8~

Lyssa struggled to pull herself up and over the edge of what appeared to be a well located in the middle of a forest, half toppling over the edge of it, panting and sniffling, trying to keep her tears at being separated from her love from falling. She was going to be surrounded by heroes now, she could hear more than just Emma and Snow White (or was she this Mary Margaret person she'd heard Emma call her once or twice in this realm?) before her, and she refused to show them weakness or that she was upset. She cried easily, many things upset her and no matter how hard she tried, tears always seemed to come, but she had gotten better at not letting them fall. And right now she couldn't risk that.

She took a moment to gather herself, making an oath to herself that she would find a way to open a portal back to the Enchanted Forest, she would find a way to get Killian back if it was the last thing she did. And as her resolve hardened, she glanced up to get an idea of what she would be facing in her quest to help her pirate reach Storybrooke from this side. There was a small group of people before her, they were…oddly dressed, in clothing that looked more like Emma and Mary Margaret's style than anything of the forest, and given that Emma was now currently hugging a small boy tightly, Mary Margaret rushing to join in, she could assume that was her son, Henry.

She stood, brushing the dirt and leaves off the skirt of her dress, her hands in fists as she took deep breaths, needing to seem stronger than she felt, especially when she spotted the Dark One, looking more human than ever, standing at the edge of the gathering with a girl she vaguely recognized (something about a wolf or a red cloak or something) beside him.

"I missed you!" Emma was shouting to the boy.

"I missed you, too," the boy nearly cried.

"I missed you so much…"

Mary Margaret pulled away first, looking around, hesitating at the sight of the Dark One, who appeared to be frowning at Lyssa as the girl stood awkwardly to the side, as though recognizing her but trying to place from where, and over to Ruby, the girl smiling widely at her and stepping up to hug her tightly.

And that was when she saw it, Regina sitting against the other side of the well, out of breath, a small scratch on the side of her forehead from where she'd fallen, "What's going on? What happened?"

"She saved you!" Henry beamed at Regina, though he didn't seem to notice her injury from his angle, "She saved both of you. Um, all of you?" he glanced at Lyssa, shooting his blonde mother a questioning look at who this new person was that they'd brought back with them.

"Thank you," Emma turned to the woman, ignoring Henry's question for a moment, not really knowing how to bring up Lyssa, or speak to the woman. She had NOT been happy when they had grabbed her and pulled her away from Hook, she wasn't sure how to approach this now.

Lyssa started to move forward to see who they were talking to, only to freeze when she heard the voice that responded, "You're welcome."

She let out a breath at that, quickly rushing around the side of the well to see the woman kneeling beside it, her eyes widening, "Regina?"

Silence fell as the small band of heroes (and the Dark One) looked over at her, but she paid them no mind, her attention focused solely on the Queen panting and shaking on the ground.

"My Lady!" she gasped, rushing forward, falling to her knees before Regina, "You're injured!" she reached out a hand to Regina's forehead, waving it past the small cut to heal it.

The others watched, Emma and Mary Margaret more startled to learn that she had had magic that entire time yet never displayed it or used it to escape, the others curious as to how she knew Regina, why she would HEAL the woman at all...Regina, however, her eyes were wide with another shock that was all too clear to the others.

She _knew_ this girl.

Regina gaped at her openly, her expression clear as day, looking as though she were seeing a ghost, as though she didn't think the girl before her could possibly exist and be standing there right at that moment, "Lyssa…" she breathed, reaching out to touch the girl's face, almost cradling it in her hands as she pushed herself to her knees, "You're…"

"I'm here," Lyssa nodded, giving her a watery grin, "It...it took some doing..." she sniffled, thinking about Killian.

"What?" Emma shook her head at that completely flabbergasted at the reaction to the Evil Queen and the Queen's to Lyssa.

"You're alive," Regina just shook her head, before pulling the girl into a tight hug, completely stunning the rest of them into silence. She pulled away a moment later, getting up and helping Lyssa up at the same time, "I can't believe you're here, when the curse struck and you weren't…"

"We got held up," Lyssa gave her an apologetic look, "It was but a moment for me, though I know it was many years for you. I'm sorry."

"I doubt it was your fault, dear," Regina actually smiled at her, "But it seems we have a lot to catch up on now."

"Of course!" Lyssa nodded frantically, needing this, needing to talk to someone that knew her, because her heart felt like it was breaking in her chest, she felt so conflicted, so happy to see the woman before her alive but so saddened to be there when Killian wasn't.

"Hold on," Emma cut in, a frown on her face, "I thought you said you wanted to find your mother."

Lyssa blinked at that, glancing from Regina and back to Emma, "I _did_ say that...yes..." she spoke slowly, seeming almost hesitant, "I should, um, do that then. Find my mother first and..."

Regina reached out and put a hand on Lyssa's arm to stop her, the touch seeming far more gentle than anyone expected, startling them, "It's alright," she told the girl, her attention on Lyssa for the moment, the girl seeming almost overwhelmed by just those two words.

Lyssa's head snapped to look at Regina, her eyes wide, disbelieving. It made Emma and Mary Margaret wary, why was the girl reacting that way to Regina's blessing just to go find her mother? Had she known the Queen? Was she thinking it was some sort of royal permission or pardon? Had she NOT been a prisoner of the Evil Queen then for helping Snow White?

But Lyssa knew, it wasn't that, not at all, it was_ so much more_ than that, "Are you sure?" she nearly whispered, the hopeful note in her voice seeming to break Regina's heart at the same time as the woman gave her a nod.

Regina glanced over at Gold, of all people, "Things are different in this world," she added, her gaze drifting to Mary Margaret, "You're safer here," and back to Lyssa, the hold on the girl's arm turning to a single affectionate stroke, "It's _alright_."

Lyssa let out a shuddering breath at that, at the permission she had been given, her eyes filling with tears for a different reason now as she started to smile, turning to grin at Emma, "I _did_ say I wanted to find my mother, Emma. And now...now I have."

Emma's mouth dropped open in shock at that, looking between Lyssa and Regina in complete confusion, seeing absolutely NOTHING even remotely similar between them, which left her feeling entirely startled by the revelation and admission that Lyssa...

That Regina...

_Regina_ was _Lyssa's mother_!?

Even _Gold_ looked completely thrown by that information and it was not often the Dark One was genuinely surprised.

"What?" was the cracked question given by Henry that echoed in all their minds. The boy looking between them, his gaze fixating more on his mother, seeming almost betrayed that he didn't know that.

"Yes," Regina gave her son a warning look to mind his tone, to stop with his growing glare, "I adopted her in the Enchanted Forest."

"When did this happen?" Mary Margaret shook her head, it was...it was _impossible_! She would have KNOWN if Regina had adopted a daughter! She would KNOW if she had a step-sister! There was NO way it was while her father was alive, and she knew, if it happened after that, she would have heard about it. The people would _not_ have been silent about that fact that the Evil Queen had an heir.

"When I was three years old," Lyssa straightened, completely throwing Mary Margaret with that information, because the girl before her couldn't be younger than 20, which meant...it HAD happened while the King had been alive, "Just after Cora killed Danny."

The tone in her voice when she said Daniel's affectionated name was clear to them that the girl had truly been very, _very_ young when she'd been 'adopted' by Regina, she had to have been if she even KNEW Daniel. Children did that, called older people by shorter names than was proper. It was clearly a habit that she had never grown out of.

"She killed my mother, to get to Gina."

Regina straightened at the reminder as well, at hearing the affectionated version of her own name, something Lyssa only did when she was talking about Daniel or thinking of him, she called her Regina or 'My Lady' when others were around, but versions of mother when it was just them. All it served to do was remind her of that entire disaster, "She wanted Lyssa to stay silent about Daniel."

"She knew what Cora did?" Mary Margaret breathed.

"I SAW it," Lyssa defended, anger in her voice, "I heard _you_ tell Cora about Danny, even after she asked you not to, even after you SWORE to keep the secret. I tried to get my mother to help, but she refused, so I went to warn Gina myself...I was too late."

She could still remember that horrible time, she still had the nightmares about it.

Explaining to Killian why she was screaming out 'Danny!' in her sleep loud enough to wake the entire crew of the ship one night had not been pleasant, not to explain or defend or have to reassure them that no, someone named Daniel hadn't hurt her in the past and they did not need to hunt him down.

She could remember everything as though it happened yesterday, despite it being nearly two decades ago, despite her having been so young when it happened. It had been so horrible an event that it just never left her, she remembered every detail of it with crystal clarity it haunted her so much since that day.

She had gotten to the stables just in time to see Cora rip his heart out and crush it, to see him crumple to the ground with Regina sobbing over him, desperately trying to bring him back with true love's kiss before Cora merely stormed out of the building. She had been devastated, had run to Regina's side, crying and trying to shake Daniel awake because he COULDN'T leave Regina, he couldn't! He was the hero, the knight that rescued the princess from her wicked mother, he wasn't supposed to die! She could remember Regina pulling her into her arms to hug her, rocking her back and forth, realizing she had witnessed the murder as well and that it was likely traumatizing an event to such a young girl. She could remember begging her Gina to forgive her, that she'd tried to get help, tried to warn her, she really had, but just hadn't been fast enough.

After that night, they were all each other had, they were the only ones left that could carry on Daniel's memory.

She had loved Regina and Daniel as parents, despite still having her mother. It was one of those childish games, where a child found an older child and would play house, so to speak. She was too young to be useful to the other servants that worked in Cora's manor and so her mother often had her out in the stables so as not to get in the way. She had met Daniel there, he had been one of the few that didn't treat her like she was invisible or a nuisance, he taught her about horses, let her feed them and brush the ponies and even help him with polishing little trinkets around. She was his proud assistant and the youngest one in the manor too! She had been the one that had introduced Regina to Daniel, the woman had seen her sitting in the barn polishing one of the horseshoes and inquired about why she was there. She had cheered that she was helping Danny, and introduced herself, calling Regina 'Gina' as only a child could. And when Daniel had returned with a bag of apples for the horses, she had been all too excited to introduce him to her new friend and tell him that Gina loved horses too.

The three of them were often together, whenever Regina and Daniel could sneak away for time together she was sometimes included, when her mother wasn't in need of her or she wasn't expected to stay indoors for some reason or another. They both seemed to love her as much as she did them, and when they would manage a tiny, quick picnic, it was almost like they were a family, Regina as the mother, Daniel as the father, and her as the baby.

After he had been murdered, Cora had found out she'd told her mother and gone after her, ripped out her heart and crushed it as she was her usual means of dealing with those that hindered her. Cora had nearly killed HER too, but Regina had begged her not to, to spare the girl, she had promised to do whatever her mother wanted if she would just 'Leave Lyssa alone!' Her mother had seemed far too pleased with that and let her be. She understood why Regina had done it, she loved her, though it had guilted her for_ years_ after, she had blamed herself for the hell Regina went through as queen. She had convinced herself, despite knowing what Cora was like and how manipulative she was, that it wouldn't have happened if Regina hadn't promised her mother she'd go through with it for her sake. But Regina loved her, she saw so much of Daniel in her even though they shared no blood, knew that there was only one other person out there that still loved Daniel besides herself, and it was Lyssa.

They were each other's last connection to the stable boy.

When they arrived at Leopold's castle, Regina had hidden her away among the servants, made sure that she was taken care of during the day when she couldn't be there. She always found time though, whenever the king was away with Snow, which was surprisingly often, to spend time with her, to teach her, ensure she was educated and cared for and healthy. The other servants kept quiet about her special affection for the orphaned ginger girl, she was one of the few things, likely the ONLY thing that made their new, young Queen happy so they said nothing to the King or his daughter about it, not even after the 'Evil Queen' had been born had those servants breathed a word of her existence and connection to the Queen either, likely that they still saw her as the innocent little girl that they all took part in caring for and didn't want her caught in the crossfire of Snow White's war with the Queen, whatever reason it was, she was grateful for their silence. From that point on, Regina had become her mother in every sense of the word, Regina had taken to calling her her daughter as well, the only daughter she wanted...a dig at Snow White, but understandable.

She was also the only one besides Regina that hated Snow White too.

She hated Leopold as well, more than anyone else, probably even more than Regina did.

As she grew older, the moment she was old enough, Regina had named her her Principle Lady-in-Waiting, for her own protection. She knew that better than anyone just how much she was protected in holding that title. Snow White would die of shock if she knew the reason behind that particular appointment.

In public, around anyone else but the two of them, she put on the role of servant, of Lady-in-Waiting, loyal to the Queen. That was how everyone else saw her if they happened to notice her, which was not often, not many people noticed the servants, especially not Snow White. The young girl hadn't noticed anyone past her 'nurse' Johanna, and she was so often away with her father that she doubted the girl had even known they lived in the same castle, something proven just days ago. Still, the 'servant' role she put on was important, and had been done for just that reason, invisibility. That was how everyone else, especially Rumpelstiltskin needed to see her, just a simple servant. They could NOT know how important she actually was to the Queen, it was too risky, it put Regina in too much danger as well to show her any affection in public. But when others were away, when it was just them and a handful of her most trusted Black Knights, like the Huntsman, she was her mother again. She was the woman that brushed her hair at night, who ate breakfast with her, who cared for her when she was ill.

Regina was her mother, even if she hadn't given birth to her, she had been her mother since she was three years old.

It wasn't even odd, when one thought about just how young women were often married to older kings. Sometimes girls, as young as 12, were married off and expected to grow with-child. For an 18 year old woman to have a 3 year old 'daughter' was not odd at all, and it was far more natural than an 18 year old having a 10 year old daughter, Regina and Snow would have been better off as sisters than mother and daughter.

"I was too late to stop it," Lyssa swallowed hard, reaching out to take her mother's hand, needing comfort from the memories, especially now, because as she thought of how her mother had been separated from the man she loved, she too was thinking of the man she herself loved and how they were now parted, "We both lost Danny that night, but we still had each other."

"Hold on," Emma shook her head, holding up a hand, "You were adopted by the Evil Queen," she looked at Lyssa, completely disregarding the very traumatic moment that Lyssa had been speaking about to fixate on the 'adoption' detail, "And you see no problem with that?"

"Wasn't your SON adopted by the Evil Queen?" Lyssa argued.

"Yeah, and I have a MAJOR problem with it."

"Then I pity you and how close-minded you are," Lyssa told her, "Mother is..." she smiled at Regina, squeezing her hand, "The_ best_ mother in the world."

"You've _got_ to be kidding me," Ruby scoffed.

Lyssa just shot her a glare, taking a step as though to continue her defense, furious that the heroes seemed to be judging her mother over her ability to be a good one with even more proof of it standing between Emma and Mary Margaret, when Regina's hold on her hand tightened in a gentle squeeze, "It's not worth it, dear," she told her, "WE know the truth," she tugged Lyssa back, waiting till the girl looked at her, "As always."

"As only," Lyssa nodded, sounding as though she were reciting something age-old between them. Her expression grew soft, "I missed you mama," she murmured, too overwhelmed to care about which title she called the woman by in the presence of others.

Regina just pulled her into a hug again, not caring either, holding her tight, the manner and stance of the hug nearly making the others look away at just how clear it was that the two had been separated for far too long and genuinely missed each other deeply, that there was enormous care between them. Mary Margaret _did_ have to look away, that sort of hug, that reunion...that was _all_ she had ever hoped for when she found Emma again, and it was being felt by her arch enemy.

When Regina pulled away a long while later, she quickly brushed away a fallen tear from Lyssa's cheek, "Let's go," she retook the girl's hand, "We have a lot to talk about," she paused, "And it's not like I'm going to be invited to family dinner any time soon," she added, one last dig at the Charmings behind her as she turned to walk away with Lyssa.

Did it pain her deeply that she had to walk away from her son, leave him with her enemies, and know that he WANTED it that way?

Yes, very much.

But that was just it, Henry had made it very clear he wanted nothing to do with her. He had chosen the heroes. The child she had raised for the last decade didn't want her, he wanted the woman that gave him up. He had no right to feel wounded or hurt if she left with Lyssa this one time, this was what he wanted, her to leave and be out of his life, the villain to be defeated and humiliated.

And she had been telling the truth, she really did doubt the heroes would have considered asking her along with them when they left.

No, one child she had raised didn't want anything to do with her, so why not spend time with the child that DID.

~8~

Captain Hook smirked darkly as he stood at the helm of his ship, Cora beside him as the Jolly Roger said towards the dock of a small, odd town he could see clearly through the telescope he held in his hand.

"There it is," he muttered, feeling anticipation rise in him.

It had been easy to trick the heroes into thinking they had won. Well, easy in the sense that he honestly hadn't thought his plan would work.

The moment he realized that the heroes had escaped, and knowing the old adage that heroes always seemed to win, that good had an infuriating habit of triumphing over evil, he had known he needed to make a plan B and make it quickly.

He knew that Plan A would work, Cora wouldn't have gone through all the trouble of getting the ashes and compass if she didn't think that it would be successful. And, as he wasn't sure if his own plan would work, he needed to know that Lyssa had at least made it through safely.

While his revenge was still important to him, that it was likely one of the two most important things in his life at the moment, he knew that Lyssa finding her mother was equally as important to her. He had waited 300 years to skin the Crocodile, he could wait a little longer, Lyssa didn't deserve to be separated from her mother as she had, it had been HIS fault they hadn't made it through the Dark Curse, it had been his fault that Lyssa had been parted from the woman so long, and he would see her reunited before taking his own revenge.

He had needed to ensure she would go through with the heroes, in case his own plan didn't work, though with Cora and her magic around, he had a better chance that it would. He knew the heroes wouldn't take HIM with them, but Lyssa…she at least stood a chance. They saw her as innocent, too nice, too much a hero even if she had villain sympathies.

They thought her to be nothing of a threat.

He doubted, if they knew who her mother was, they'd feel the same.

Still, he had been pleased his plan had worked. All it took was the dried up magic bean he'd stolen from the giant. Seeing Cora revitalize the lake, knowing that the lake had its own magical properties, regenerative properties, the bean would be restored as well. One simple toss into the waters and they had their own vortex connected to the last one back to Storybrooke.

And there they were, sailing right towards it. Right towards his revenge on the Dark One. Right towards his lady love.

Cora's smirk mirrored his own, "Storybrooke."

And they had no idea what was coming.

A/N: So a few things about this chapter :)

There will be much, MUCH more about Lyssa and her backstory with Regina to come. There were SO MANY flashbacks I wanted to put in before this moment but they all contained too many allusions to her mother and to Lyssa's magic that it would have completely given away who her 'mother' was. There will be more explanation about Lyssa's magic and WHY she didn't use it around the others, I can say it was not just to keep an advantage to herself ;)

I wanted to touch on how Regina was her mother but also, in a very small way, _wasn't_ her mother. Yes, Lyssa was born to another woman, no one we would really know from the show, a random servant in Cora's house really, but Regina raised her for almost 20 years, she adopted her as much as she could by the laws of the Enchanted Forest and without the king or Rumpelstiltskin or her mother finding out. There will be quite a few chapters detailing how Regina protected Lyssa from the three of them and her other enemies to come }:)

I can confirm that Lyssa's biological mother IS deceased, it is not Maleficent or Zelena in disguise nor is it a trick where she'll turn up later alive to try and reclaim her daughter from her adoption either. Cora really did rip the woman's heart out in front of Lyssa and Regina and crushed it, and we'll find out more on Lyssa's father soon ;)

Just to clear up a little bit of the timeline for this story, Lyssa was just about 3 years old when Snow (age 10) ratted out Regina (age 18) to Cora and Cora killed Daniel. I am taking the line in the show where (I think) Snow commented it was weird to have parents 'your age' as meaning that Snow was maybe late-28ish when the curse was cast, so just about 18 years went by between Daniel dying and the Dark Curse. That means Lyssa, by the time the curse was cast, was 21ish (Snow was 28ish, Regina was 36ish). I also take the curse breaking in the Enchanted Forest to be exactly when Emma decided to stay in Storybrooke, because that refugee camp was clearly around for a while before Emma and Snow got there hours after the curse on Storybrooke was broken. I feel like it took (as a headcanon of mine) just about a year for Emma to actually break the curse entirely (because Henry just gets too old too quickly for the first season to not have been almost a year). Which means, when this story actually starts and in the main-story chapters, Lyssa is about 22ish. We'll see though, that a lot of events happened in Lyssa's life that have caused her to mature faster than many others and that she's seen more in her life that makes her feel older and closer/more understanding of Hook than others.

My main issue with Belle and Gold was that Belle was young, like Lyssa, but she hadn't lived through as many hardships and seen as many horrors as Lyssa will have. Belle couldn't remember her mother dying, Lyssa saw it as a child, Belle lived and grew up as a princess in a castle, Lyssa was the hidden 'daughter' of a queen, Belle was a servant for a short while of the Dark One and witness to some of his dark magic here and there, Lyssa saw the aftermath of him teaching Regina dark magic as well as more 'evil' deeds going on in front of her than Belle ever would. She had a short time with Rumpelstiltskin in his castle, but even that wasn't so terrible that she could understand the true Darkness in him, Lyssa has been exposed to dark magic nearly all her life :( Lyssa's life will parallel Hook's in a subtle way and she'll grow from knowing and being with him, being raised by Regina, in a way I felt like Belle didn't grow.

I hope you liked that little twist to Regina being her mother, but her adoptive mother ;) I really tried not to flat out say yes or no about Regina being her mother because, on one hand she IS the mother in every sense of the world but on the other hand she isn't in the strictest sense of not being the birth-giver (though I personally count adoptive mothers as being legitimately and 100 percent the real mother). It will cause some rather large confrontations with Snow, with Henry, and with Emma, in various ways. Snow that Regina has a daughter she actually loved instead of the step-daughter she despised, Henry that his mother isn't just HIS mother anymore (even though he's been the one pushing her away), and Emma because Lyssa clearly loves the Evil Queen and if she was a legitimately good mother to Lyssa DURING her Evil Queen days then she probably was to Henry too as just the Mayor and all the things Emma's built up in her mind about her son's life with the Evil Queen are probably VERY wrong. We may even see a little of David having an issue with this whole Lyssa and Regina mother-daughter situation too }:)

Their little phrase of being the ones to know the truth, 'as always, as only,' will come into play again and will be very significant in how Lyssa views Regina and her choices in the Forest. And I can say the Regina we see in being a mother to Henry, will be a very big detail in how she was a mother in the Enchanted Forest, a lot of what people think they knew about her will be entirely wrong }:)

I feel like I need to warn this now, before the story gets going, that this story will also take a 'darker' look at what medieval marriages were like, the expectations on the wives, and what that would mean for Regina as queen. While it is fairytale characters, the original collections in the Brothers Grimm were, well, grim, and not like Disney would make out. This is going to look at that quality of them in some contexts along with exploring realistic expectations of kings and kingdoms. This will not be a story that paints Leopold in a good light, but we don't see or know enough about him to know who he really was, so it will paint him in a _realistic_ light for what we saw in the show along with what kings were expected and had done in the past. We saw hints of a more sinister nature to him in the show, and it will be explored here :( It will be part of what affects Lyssa's thoughts on Snow White, that the girl is the reason Regina was condemned to the life she had, but there is a lot of deep and emotional and psychological reasons for why Lyssa views Snow as she does, as being worse than Cora, which we'll see as the story goes on :'(

Some notes on reviews...

I've been going through my PMs in reverse order, the oldest ones first to try and not have them unanswered longer. But I'll be sure to find your PM and message you back today :) It might take a few hours though, I tend to post new chapters right before I head to work and so it might take about 8 hours to get back to you, but I will ;)

I agree, we definitely need a ship name :) I can say I have a specific chapter where I plan to put up requests for pairing name suggestions so we can have a poll on them, we just have to get to it first ;) It's the chapter where we see how Hook and Lyssa officially start and KNOW that it's really love instead of thinking it is ;) I'm glad you've enjoyed the story so far :) I think once Emma and Lyssa find a common ground they could be friends too, I think Emma needs someone optimistic, but in a more realistic way than Snow's blind faith that things will work out. I think Lyssa likes to hope for the best, but she also prepares for the worst which is something Emma could appreciate. That was something I explored a lot in my Piper story, the villain point of view and how they interpret what the heroes do, here we'll see more of a villain's point of view but in the sense that the heroes don't really know or understand everything that's happening, they assume far too much and they are not always right. In what ways, we'll have to wait to find out ;) Mulan probably won't have a bigger role than in the show though, sorry! :( But I can say I do plan to continue into season 5. I plan to keep this story and my Piper/Gold story going as long as the show airs. Though, to be honest, I've found myself really hoping that Season 5 will be the last season :/ I just feel like I shouldn't need to force myself to watch a show just because I'm writing an OC series based on it instead of genuinely wanting to see what happens, and that's sort of where OUAT has gotten for me recently :( I can say Emma and Hook may surprise you at certain points in the story, but I won't say how }:) I don't have any other Hook/OCs or Gold/OCs to recommend though, sorry! I actually don't read fanfictions in the same fandom I am or plan to write in, to keep myself from being influenced by other works and protect the integrity and originality of my stories. Which means I've read 0 fanfictions in OUAT and probably won't be able to read any till my Piper AU or Graham/OC stories are finished, whichever one comes last :(

I can say there's a reason Smee is with the ship and not taken by the curse in this story ;) But we'll have to wait a few chapters till we get to when the curse struck to find out why :) I think there are plenty of people in Storybrooke that Moe French could have gone to to do the exact same thing Smee had, the Dark One had enough enemies after all that would be willing to help 'save' Belle from him ;) We'll see more about that though and who it was that was there when Smee wasn't :) So, while I know, in the show, Smee was in Storybrooke, in the story, he didn't get taken by the Curse ;)

I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far :) I actually specify in the first chapter, at the start of the story, the formatting for the chapters is one chapter of the episode, followed by a flashback chapter :) Once the story gets going, it forms that pattern, alternating every other chapter as a flashback instead of trying to follow the show and flashback within the chapter to make it less confusing ;)


	10. The Stable Boy

The Stable Boy

An 18 year old Regina glanced around cautiously as she entered the stables on her family's land, always fearing that, at any moment, she would look back and find her mother standing there, watching her. She couldn't risk it, not in the stables, not that her mother ever really stepped foot in them. She preferred carriage rides to horseback, unlike her daughter. But still, the last encounter she'd had with her mother just moments ago had shaken her terribly.

She swallowed hard, just thinking about it made her heart race and her body shiver, and not in a good way. She had just wanted to show her parents her progress in riding bareback, something she had been working on for weeks now whenever she could find time. Her father had been supportive and as impressed with her as ever, but her mother…well, she hadn't been pleased. She had called it riding like a man and ungraceful and had to remind her that she was getting older and ought to be married by now. It was just like her mother to make even horseback riding a disappointment to her. She criticized her about everything she did, every little thing, and as much as she hated it, hated being put down all the time, she still wanted to make her mother proud. Even when…even when her mother used her magic on her, to lift her into the air with invisible robes, even when her mother had nearly choked her for her 'insolence,' she still wanted to do what her mother said, though that was more out of fear than anything. She sometimes wondered if it was like that for her father, the man rarely ever stood against his wife, not even to really defend her from her mother's cruelty.

Worse yet, when Daniel, the stable boy, had tried to help, tried to offer her a saddle to assuage her mother's ire, she'd snapped at him.

She looked up, catching the latest focus of her thoughts standing before her, brushing down the horse she had been riding, the one she'd just chucked the reins to for him to lead away. And there he was, just tending to the magnificent creature as though nothing were wrong.

"Daniel," she called softly, though she knew he'd heard her enter, "I'm sorry I snapped at you."

The boy merely turned around, smiling softly at her, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he made his way over to her, "That's alright," he wound his arms around her, "You'll just have to find some way to make it up to me."

She grinned up at him, pushing herself on her toes to give him a gentle kiss…

Only to break away moments later when they heard a quiet giggle to the side.

"Lyssa," Regina called out, not sounding angry at all, but more fondly exasperated as she recognized the sound, "Come out."

They watched as a little head full of long ginger hair peeked out from behind one of the stalls, blue eyes sparkling up at them as a three year old girl beamed, "I didn't do anything," she defended, though she had to hide another giggle behind her hand.

Regina shook her head, crouching down as Lyssa took that as a sign all was clear and ran from around the stall, right into Regina's arms, "Oh, I missed you dear," Regina hugged her tightly.

Her mother had kept such a close watch on her the last few days that she'd hardly been able to come to the stables or even give the girl a passing glance when she caught sight of her trailing behind her mother in the dining hall during meals. Lyssa's mother was one of the servants that attended to the manor, though she worked in the kitchens mostly, cooking, serving meals, cleaning the dishes, sometimes helping out with laundry. She often sent Lyssa to Daniel in the stables whenever she was too busy. Lyssa was a curious girl, always wanting to explore and see new things, always trying to help in that way only a three year old could manage…which meant usually causing a mess more than a help.

With Cora as a mistress, none of the women were keen to keep their children around in a place where they could cause too much fuss or mess and would often send them out to stay with their other parents or friends for the day. Unfortunately, she knew that Lyssa's mother had no one else to send the girl to, no friends willing to take in another child for a few hours, no family to speak of, and the girl's father, well, that was a touchy subject to the woman. Regina had asked her only once if he was someone that Lyssa could be sent to and been firmly told that the man was not in the picture, nor was he likely even alive. She could tell it was a painful story for the woman and didn't ask again, but she had, admittedly, done a little snooping and discovered from the other servants that Lyssa's mother had been wooed by one of the wealthier men in town, that Lyssa had been conceived from that, and the man had refused to recognize Lyssa as his. Lyssa's mother had heard that the man had left town, with his family (because of course he HAD to have an actual family) and hadn't been seen since.

The woman liked to think that the man was dead and Regina hadn't had the means to continue asking about it. Whether he was alive or not, Lyssa's mother had kept silent about his identity and refused to talk about him. He was as good as dead to her.

She really had no one close enough to send Lyssa away to, no friends, no husband, no family. Well, she DID know that Lyssa's mother had a sister, but the woman lived in another kingdom, too far away to send Lyssa to. So she relied on Daniel to take her in. The stables were large enough, far away enough from the manor, and quiet enough that the girl couldn't cause too much trouble, and Daniel seemed to love her. He was teaching her how to care for the horses and feed them, how to brush the ponies and polish their effects. He was so wonderful with her, and he always, _always_ made sure that she was hidden or away when Cora was around, which Regina appreciated very much.

Lyssa was such a sweet girl, she couldn't help but love her, and if her mother had caught sight of the girl 'mucking around' in the stables, well she knew it would set her off. Lyssa was too young to be forced to experience Cora's rage…though she knew the girl was precocious, already aware of the terrible things Cora did and could do with magic. She couldn't even begin to count the number of times Lyssa had witnessed Cora using magic on her own daughter, the girl was always so upset when it happened, always insisted that she 'examine' her as though she were Regina's physician. She was sure in her heart that, one day, Lyssa would make an excellent healer or midwife, she just loved to help people so much and take care of them. The girl had such a gentle heart that she had sworn to ensure it remained that way.

"What did I tell you about hiding in here and not telling me first, Lys?" Daniel sounded like a chastising father when he called her Lys, Regina thought vaguely, watching as he crouched down to look her in the eye. It was something he always did with the children around, he got on their level.

Regina appreciated it, after having been talked down to by her mother so many times, she loved how he never made the children feel like they were lesser than him, that he appreciated them enough to look them in the eye.

"Not to," she pouted, looking down and fiddling with her hands as Regina pulled away from the hug, "But I just…I heard Gina!" she beamed at the woman, "And I missed her too!"

Daniel gave a soft laugh, "As did I," he admitted, looking gently at Regina with all the love he had for her shining in his eyes, making Lyssa smile at the sight, he always made such funny faces when Regina was around, "In fact, I missed her so much that I thought the three of us could have a picnic up by the tree," their tree, the one far enough away from the manor that Cora couldn't see them, their secret spot to spend time together. And, while he would love for it to be just him and Regina, he adored Lyssa as well and the girl was so attached to them, she looked up to them, and she cared so deeply for them, he just couldn't bring himself to cast her out of his plans.

"Could we!?" Lyssa turned to Regina, her eyes so wide and hopeful that Regina could hardly say no to it.

"I'll see if I can get mother to agree to more 'lessons,'" was all she could offer though, maybe she could try and say she was going to work on her saddle-riding instead of bareback, that ought to get her mother to agree.

That HAD been one of the things she was complaining about earlier…it just might work.

~8~

Lyssa beamed as she heard a horse riding up to the tree she and Daniel were waiting by, just knowing it was going to be Regina before she even looked up. Who else would be there? Who else would know about their picnic? No on, just Regina.

And she looked _so_ pretty riding her horse over to them. She hoped that, one day, when she was old enough, she would be just as good a rider as Regina. Maybe Regina would even teach her how to ride! Oh that would be wonderful. The horses were too big for her to start riding just yet, according to Daniel, but he promised that he would help teach her how to ride them too, just like he'd taught Regina everything she knew about horses.

"Gina!" Lyssa waved eagerly as Regina jumped off her horse and ran to meet them, giving Daniel a hug and a kiss first before she made her way over to Lyssa, kneeling down before the girl to see what she was working on.

"What have you got there, dear?" Regina peered down at, what appeared to be, a mess of flowers and weeds that looked like they'd been mangled.

"Danny taught me!" she held up what was in her hands, what looked like a circle of the flowers all knotted together at awkward angles.

"Oh, he's teaching you how to make a flower wreath?" Regina glanced at Daniel, amused, because he was clearly out of his depth with that and looked like he'd just told her to tie them all together.

"No," she huffed playfully as Regina sat down fully, "It's not a…a…weeth," she struggled to pronounce it, "It's a crown!"

"A crown?" Regina raised an eyebrow, though not in a mocking way but more playfully curious for a child's sake.

"Uh huh," Lyssa nodded, wiggling to her knees, peering up at Regina, before twisting and pushing herself to stand instead so that she was taller than the sitting woman, "It's a pretty crown for the most pretty lady. Cos that's what Danny says all the time."

And, with that, she placed the odd stringing of flowers and weeds onto Regina's head.

"Is that so," Regina hummed, though she was deeply touched, reaching up to straighten the wreath on her head, "Well, then I love it."

Lyssa beamed at that, Daniel chuckling as he moved to sit down beside the girls, reaching out to grab Lyssa around the middle and pull her into his lap, tickling her, "Trying to show me up, little fox?"

"Stop it," Lyssa giggled, squirming to try and get away from the tickle attack, "Stop it! Gina help!"

Regina laughed heartily at that, "I'll rescue you, little Lys," she reached out and managed to grab Lyssa under the arms, hauling her up and into her own lap as the girl struggled to regain her breath though she was smiling widely. They often changed names for Lyssa, calling her either little fox or little Lys. It didn't seem right to call her a vixen just yet, she was still so young, but cub was to broad a term, so they just called her fox, her hair reminded them of the ones they would see in the forests.

Lyssa, once she had recovered, crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at Daniel, who just shook his head in amusement.

"Well, she's given me the most wonderful gift," Regina teased him, gesturing to her head, "What have you come to offer your lady?"

Daniel started to smile, "I thought we could take a ride to Firefly Hill. We can make it by sundown, have our picnic there and…"

"I can't go that far," Regina shook her head, sad, "I have to be back in an hour, tea time," she rolled her eyes at the concept, "A lady never misses her tea time."

"Tea is icky," Lyssa muttered.

Regina looked down at her, "You've never had tea before," she poked the girl in the stomach.

"It takes you away from us," she looked up at Regina with sad eyes, "So it's icky."

Regina could only give her a soft smile at that, "It is. It's a _very_ icky thing."

"It's absurd is what it is," Daniel sighed, though Regina could tell he was talking about more than just the tea, "Stealing kisses between lunch and tea? When are you going to tell your parents about us?"

"It's not my parents," Regina said quietly, glancing at Lyssa and back at Daniel, dropping her voice as though it would keep the girl from hearing her say, "It's _her_," in reference to her mother.

"I don't understand. So, I work in the stables. She started out as the daughter of a miller. Wouldn't she, of all people, understand?"

"She does. But…but she thinks one's trajectory needs to keep moving up and…"

"And I'm down," Daniel sighed.

"_She_ believes that, Daniel. I know better."

"Cora's a meanie," Lyssa muttered, reaching out to pluck some grass from the ground and twist them, breaking off a piece or two, "She's a big fat meanie."

Regina nearly laughed at hearing a woman like her mother, as unbearable and cruel and cold hearted as she was, being called JUST a meanie. But to Lyssa, she knew that being mean was as bad as being truly evil. The girl hated when she saw Cora picking on her daughter or saying things that upset her. To Lyssa, women like Cora, evil women, were meanies.

"Regina," Daniel reached out to take her hand, "Tell her. She'll get over it. What can she do?"

Lyssa shook in her arms, "Magic," the girl said so quietly Regina almost missed it.

Regina pressed a little kiss to Lyssa's hair, knowing the girl was scared of Cora, of the power she had, because she knew the girl saw _her_ as a princess, as a hero, as strong and brave to ride a horse like she did, and if SHE was scared of her mother and unable to defeat her, then Cora had to be very scary indeed.

"Have you not seen her magic?" she agreed with the girl, "The real question is...what can't she do?"

"Who cares about magic?" Daniel said, his gaze flickering to Lyssa, making his voice sound more sure and strong than he actually thought, not wanting to frighten her more, hoping that, if he was brave enough to not care, it would reassure the little girl as much as it would Regina, "True love is the most powerful magic of all. It can overcome anything."

Lyssa looked up at Regina for that, "Like you and Danny," she smiled at the woman, even as young as she was, she could tell that they loved each other, just like princes and princesses did!

Regina opened her mouth to thank them for their words but continue with her fears, when she stiffened, hearing something that sounded like a shout for help in the distance, "Shh," she shifted, placing Lyssa beside her as she moved back onto her knees, looking around, "Someone's here."

A moment later a white horse flew past them, a girl clinging to the back of it, "Somebody, help me!"

Regina was up in an instant, carefully tossing Daniel the wreath as she rushed to her horse, leaping on, riding after the girl.

"Gina!" Lyssa cried, about to scramble after her, wanting to help, but Daniel pulled her back.

"Shh," he reassured her, "Shh, Regina's going to be just _fine_," he gave her a gentle squeeze, "She's the best rider ever right?"

Lyssa frowned but nodded, her eyes locked on Regina, watching her get smaller and smaller as she pushed her horse to catch up to the girl's. She held her breath, squeezing Daniel's arms around her…till she saw Regina pull the girl onto her horse and slow down to a stop, both of them safe.

She let out a breath, starting to smile again, "Gina's a hero!"

Daniel nodded fondly, watching as Regina made sure the girl was alright, "That she is."

~8~

Lyssa blinked blearily as she felt herself being shaken awake gently by someone. It couldn't be her mother, her mother was just a little more forceful when waking her up, and she only woke her in the morning, when the sun was dawning, it was still dark out from what she could see as she rubbed her eyes. She looked around, trying to see what had woken her when she saw Regina behind her, kneeling next to the bed.

"Gina?" she whispered, frowning in confusion, because Regina never came to the servants quarters, she never came to the rooms of the few that lived at the manor. It was mostly the kitchen staff that did, they had to be up so early to cook the food and get things prepared for the day that it made little sense for them to walk home or risk foul weather keeping the away.

"I'm sorry to wake you, little Lys," Regina gave her a tight smile but it only served to make Lyssa frown.

"You were crying," she reached out to touch Regina's wet cheek.

"Because I'm happy," she reassured the girl, taking her little hand, "Daniel has asked me to marry him."

"He did!?"

"Shh," Regina quickly quieted her, glancing over at the sleeping form of the girl's mother that she'd snuck past. She had visited Lyssa once or twice in the past, had realized quickly that her mother was a deep sleeper, dead to the world till the sun rose, but she couldn't risk anything waking her, not now. Though she couldn't help but smile at how excited and now wide-awake Lyssa was over the news, "He did," she repeated.

"Then why are you still sad?" Lyssa asked, her momentary happiness fading as she recalled the tightness of Regina's smile.

"Many things happened," Regina sighed, "Daniel and I…we're going to be leaving tomorrow night."

It probably wasn't the wisest thing to do, to tell the girl about their plans, she was so young and she knew young children tended to have the loosest lips. She was already putting much faith in Snow White to keep a secret, but she and Daniel both adored Lyssa and they would feel wretched and guilty if they left without saying goodbye to her or telling her what was happening. Just imagining what Lyssa's reaction would have been to waking up one morning to find the two of them gone with no idea why or what happened to them, it broke their hearts.

She doubted very much that Lyssa would see much of them in the morning or throughout the day. Daniel would be preparing, as would she, to depart, and they had to do it without her mother finding out.

"You're leaving?" Lyssa frowned, "Can I come with you?"

"No, dear," Regina gave her a most regretful look, "I'm sorry, but you can't."

"Why not?" she tilted her head, her lip starting to quiver, "Did I do something bad? Do…do you not love me anymore?"

"Oh, no, no," Regina quickly pulled the small girl into her arms, soothing her as best she could, "It's not that at all. You know Daniel and I both adore you…"

"Then why are you leaving me?"

Regina pulled away, reaching out to wipe a tear that had fallen from Lyssa's eyes, her heart breaking for the girl, for the confusion of all this happening so suddenly, "You know the king came earlier, yes?"

Lyssa nodded, "Mama wouldn't let me see him. She wouldn't let me visit Danny neither," she huffed, pouting, "Said I had to sit in the kitchen and not touch nothing."

"Well, the king came for a very important reason," Regina tried to explain, "He wanted to ask ME to marry him."

"But Danny!" she seemed nearly frantic at the idea of Regina marrying anyone but Daniel.

"I didn't say yes," she continued, "But my mother…my mother did. She accepted on my behalf. _She_ wants me to marry the king," she looked at Lyssa pointedly, "And you know how scary my mother is."

"She's very scary," Lyssa agreed.

"I don't want to marry the King, I want to marry Daniel. And the only way we can do that is if we leave and leave soon. So my mother can't stop us. Do you understand?"

Lyssa gave a small nod, "But why can't I go with you?"

"Because your mother is here," Regina reminded her, "She loves you and…"

"Not as much as you and Danny do," Lyssa pointed out what might actually be the truth.

Regina knew the conditions of Lyssa's birth and conception left little room for joy, and she hadn't seen the girl's mother be entirely warm to her. Nowhere NEAR as bad as Cora was to her, she could tell that Lyssa's mother did love her daughter just…it didn't always come across to the girl or others. She cared, she was sure the woman cared, but at times Lyssa seemed to be more a burden to the woman than a blessing. She hoped it was just a frustration with Lyssa's age and curiosity and nothing more, she tried not to judge, she really did, but that girl was just so easy to love she couldn't understand how the woman couldn't love her just as much.

"She does love you, Lyssa, you know she does."

"Why can't you be my mama?" Lyssa looked at her with such wide eyes that Regina felt her resolve crack. But she knew, she couldn't just take the girl away from her mother, not like that and not for a life she wasn't even certain would be safe.

"I wish I could," she admitted, "But right now, your mother is here and she loves you, you need to stay with her where it's safe," she glanced over her shoulder as though expecting her own mother to be listening or standing right behind her, and turned back to Lyssa, "I promise you, when Daniel and I get settled, we'll find some way to get your mother and you to us. Ok?"

Lyssa let out a little breath but nodded, squeezing the hand Regina was still holding, "You won't forget me?"

"Never," Regina promised.

"Promise?"

"I do," she agreed, "Now, Lyssa, I need you to promise me something too."

"Anything!"

Regina gave a tense smile at that as well, "No one knows Daniel and I are leaving except you and Snow White…"

"Snow White?" Lyssa blinked, confused by the name.

"The girl I rescued? You remember her?" Lyssa nodded, "She's Snow White, the princess, the king is her father. That's why he wanted to marry me, because I saved his daughter."

"Oh," her face scrunched, "But…mommies and daddies should love each other and get married."

"Yes they should," Regina agreed, "Which is why I'm leaving with Daniel," she repeated, trying to get Lyssa back on track, she understood, the girl was young and it was the middle of the night, she was tired and SHE was trying to be delicate about the situation, to make her see how serious it was without scaring her, "She came to the stables when Daniel and I were making plans, and she saw me kiss him. She wants me to be her mother too, very much, and was going to tell her father, but I explained that I loved Daniel. I made her swear not to tell my mother, and you know why…"

"Cora's a meanie."

She nodded, "A very big meanie. You know how she sometimes hurts me? She'll hurt Daniel too, hurt us worse, if she finds out. So I need you to not tell her either. Ok?"

"I won't," Lyssa promised, nodding vigorously, not_ ever_ wanting her Gina or Danny to be hurt, never ever wanting Cora to keep them from being happy, "I won't tell anyone," she moved onto her knees and hugged Regina as tightly as her little arms could manage, "I'll miss you Gina, I'll miss Danny too."

"Oh we will miss you so much, dear," Regina closed her eyes as she hugged her back, "But we'll see each other again. I promise."

She could only hope she would be able to see it through one day.

~8~

Lyssa sat behind one of the large pillars in the manor's dining hall. A selection of flowers had been brought in for the wedding preparations and Cora was to examine them and decide which ones should be used for the most magnificent wedding in the realm, the king to Regina. Lyssa, however, was not sure it would be all that spectacular, and hoped it never even happened.

But still, the flowers were there and Regina and Daniel weren't. She had tried to find them from the moment she woke up, wanting to say goodbye to Daniel as she had to Regina and to give them something, a little gift, to remember her. Not that she thought they'd forget her, not Gina and Danny, but because then it would feel like she was still with them in a tiny way.

She was going to make another flower crown for Regina, one with much prettier flowers and bigger ones, like she deserved. And for Daniel, she had drawn a little picture of a horse and him on a parchment piece she'd taken from the rubbish and drawn in charcoal from the fireplace. She had gotten herself all smudged and when her mother saw her she'd forced her to wash up and then sent her out of the kitchen to keep out of the way. So she'd found herself in the dining hall, working on her flower crown when she heard the little girl Regina had saved enter, not seeming to notice her as the pillar was rather large, before she went to look at the flowers.

She didn't like the girl.

All she kept thinking about was what Regina had told her last night. The girl wanted Regina to be her mother and was going to tell on her and Daniel because of it. If Regina hadn't stopped her…she didn't want to think about what would happen if Cora found out or even the king. They were important people, she knew, they had men with swords that followed them, and you weren't supposed to break the rules when kings were involved.

She wanted Regina to be her mother too, sometimes, she liked it when they pretended to be a family together with Daniel, but she wouldn't ever do anything to hurt the woman, not like she felt Snow White had been about to do. Princesses were selfish, she decided, well, some princesses. Regina was very selfless and she was a princess, but Snow White wasn't like Regina at all.

"Careful, sweetheart."

Lyssa nearly jumped out of her skin as she heard Cora's dreaded voice speaking.

"A flower is a delicate thing. Be gentle. You want it to grow and not pluck it before its time."

Lyssa held her breath and quietly placed her flowers down, moving onto her knees, bracing her hands against the pillar to lean over the side of it and see that Cora really was there, speaking to Snow White.

"Sorry," the princess murmured.

"It's alright. You needn't fear me. I'm only trying to help," Cora took Snow by the hand and gently led her over to a sofa resting in the middle of the room, "Perhaps, you can be the flower girl at the wedding. I can already see how close you and Regina have become. She's going to make a fine mother for you."

"She is kind to me," Snow sat beside Cora.

Lyssa frowned at that but turned around to continue with her project, the people were just talking and Snow White wasn't in danger, Cora wouldn't be a meanie to her, not after her father wanted to marry Regina.

"Indeed. It warms my heart how you two share everything already. Perhaps, you could share something with me. Why has she pulled away from me?"

Lyssa stilled at that, a flower clutched in her hand as she waited to hear what Snow White would say.

"What do you mean?"

"A mother knows her daughter. Regina's pulled away. I love her so much, but she's not letting me help her. And I…I know she's unhappy. Has she said something? I'd do anything to make her happy."

Lyssa started to shake her head, even though Snow couldn't see it, that wasn't true at all. Regina had told Cora, repeatedly, what would make her happy, and Cora NEVER listened! Ever. She wouldn't do anything to make Regina happy…it wasn't true at all. She was lying just like the meanie she was!

"You'd do anything?"

No!

Lyssa wanted to shout it so loudly, but it felt like her throat had closed up, all she could do was sit there, her eyes wide, breathing very fast as she listened on, feeling almost powerless to do anything. And she knew what it was, fear. She was frightened of Cora, the woman who could make brave Regina afraid, and Regina was her own daughter. She was scared to think what Cora would do to HER if she angered her…

"Of course, dear. You know, I talked to the King about your mother. He told me how much she loved you. Losing her must've been so hard."

"It was."

"Hearing him, I realized he might as well have been talking about me and Regina. I don't want us to lose each other. If only I could show her how I feel. That, no matter what, all I want is her happiness."

Lyssa closed her eyes tightly, praying that Snow would keep quiet, that she wouldn't fall for such lies. Even SHE could tell the lady was lying. She knew she was little but she knew when Cora lied to people. She sounded nice when she lied, she sounded a lot nicer than she ever was to Regina when she lied…and she was being nice now.

And...more than that...why was Cora even talking about losing Regina? She'd JUST been talking about how Snow White had lost her first mother...and then she realized why. It wasn't about Cora losing Regina, she was trying to make SNOW think about losing her next mother instead. Why else would she bring up a daughter losing her mother only to turn it around and have it be about a mother fearing she was losing her daughter? It was never about getting Snow to fear that Regina would lose Cora, but that SNOW would lose Regina. She really, really hoped Snow wasn't going to be as selfish as she had just thought most princesses (besides Regina) were...

"Then, don't make her get married!" Snow suddenly cried, falling for it.

"I'm sorry?"

"She doesn't love my father. She loves someone else."

Lyssa gasped at that, her eyes snapping open as she shook her head, shaking from fright of what that would mean.

"She made me promise not to tell…but she'll lose you. She can't lose her mother. No one should."

But…but telling Cora would mean Regina would lose Daniel. She just _knew_ it. Cora would send Daniel away, she would find someone else to teach Regina how to ride a horse and work in the stables. She would send Daniel to another house and then Regina would lose him, and so would she, but Regina loved him so much and, if anything came of it, she would rather Regina have Daniel than her mother.

She'd rather Regina have Daniel than even having her too. She wouldn't try to find them, she wouldn't go looking for Regina or Daniel, she wouldn't even mention them ever again, she promised herself she wouldn't, just so long as they were both safe from Cora.

"Oh, sweet Snow. It's alright. She won't lose me. You can tell me. You _must_ tell me."

Lyssa quickly turned on her knees, the flowers forgotten on the ground, and moved to peer around the pillar once more, fear filling her as she heard Snow utter the words that would destroy everything.

"There's this boy, the stable boy…and she loves him very much…"

~8~

"Mama!" Lyssa practically screamed as she ran into the kitchens, rushing there right from the dining room just after hearing Snow White tell Cora about Daniel, the moment the two had left the room she had bolted out of it, "MAMA!"

"Lyssa?" one of the women cleaning the countertops looked over. She was tall, thin, with high cheekbones and blonde hair, dressed as all the servants were in brown dresses with white aprons. She hurried around the counters, "What is it child?"

"Mama, please, you need to help Gina!" she cried, nearly sobbing as her mother moved over to her.

"What?" the woman shook her head.

"Gina! Mama, Gina's in trouble!" she reached for her mother's apron, tugging on it, "You need to go help!"

"Lyssa, child, calm down," she tried to pull Lyssa back, "What's this all about?"

"The mean lady, she's going to hurt Gina!"

Her mother looked around as the other women started to look at her and quickly grabbed Lyssa's arm to pull her into the hall just outside the door, "Lyssa, I have told you_ not_ to call Mistress Cora that!" she whispered the woman's name, knowing that no one else knew that her daughter called the woman such a thing but herself and wanting to keep it that way.

"But she IS mama," she insisted, "She's mean and she's gonna hurt Gina and Danny!"

Her other shook her head, "Lyssa, go to our room and get in bed. There will be no supper for you tonight for your lies."

"They're not lies!" she started to cry, "The princess told the lady…" she cut herself off, not wanting to break her promise to Regina just like Snow White had done, "She told her something, and now the lady's gonna hurt Gina!" she had heard it, in Cora's voice, the lady getting madder and madder as Snow tried to talk to her. She didn't think Snow heard it, but SHE had. And she knew what Cora did to Regina when she sounded that mad, it was never good and Regina always cried after it.

"This is ridiculous nonsense," her mother shook her head, "I don't know what's gotten into you, but Mistress Cora would not harm Regina. Now go to bed, Analyssa, right this instant or there will be no leaving that room for a week."

Lyssa nearly sobbed at that, of course her mother would take Cora's side, not many of the servants had witnessed Cora actually using her magic on Regina, and not many were around in the same room long enough to hear how Cora spoke to her daughter. Cora was very keen about appearances even around servants. Still, she had to TRY.

"But you have to help…"

"Analyssa that is FINAL!"

Lyssa flinched at the anger in her mother's voice and turned to run away, doing as her mother ordered and heading for their chambers in the servants' quarters. She stopped, however, just as she reached the corner and rounded it, hearing the door to the kitchen slam shut as her mother went back in to work.

She couldn't just _go_! She couldn't go to her room and just sit there, not when Regina and Daniel might get hurt! Not when they didn't know Snow White had told Cora! She looked back at the corner, biting her lip, she was going to get in so much trouble for this…but if it helped Regina and Daniel, she would stay in her room for a month, forever if she had to.

She turned and ran in the opposite direction, struggling to get one of the larger doors open but managing to pry it just enough to sneak through it. The manor was very big and she was very small, but she knew her way well enough, she just had to make it outside and she would run to the stables as fast as her little legs could carry her.

She just hoped she would be fast enough to warn Regina before Cora got there…

~8~

Lyssa was near frantic as she reached the stables, finally. She was huffing and puffing, her face red, tear tracks dried on her cheeks, her knees and palms scraped up from where she had fallen a few times on the way. It had slowed her down, but she had _finally_ reached the stables…only to find the doors and everything were locked, even though there was a light shining from within.

She knew it was a bad sign though.

Daniel_ never_ left a candle or a lantern burning with the doors to the stable locked. And if he was inside, the doors weren't locked to begin with. She looked around, feeling blindly in the darkness for the small broken panel in the stables, how she often snuck in to surprise Daniel. And managed to find it. She pushed it to the side, starting to crawl in when she heard Cora speaking from inside.

"This will make you happy?"

"It already has."

"Gina," she breathed, hearing the woman talking as well and tried to push a sack of apples that Daniel kept for the horses out of the way of her path at getting in. But the bag was so heavy and full and she was already so tired…

"Then who am I to stop you?"

Lyssa moved to the side, managing to move just a little of the bag in order to see Regina hug her mother, both women smiling. She frowned, wondering if she had been wrong to rush down there to warn Regina. Because she seemed to know that Cora knew, the woman was right there and Daniel was fine. But there was just…something…she couldn't shake how Cora had sounded after Snow told her about Daniel, something was wrong…

"Thank you, mother," Regina whispered.

Cora reached out to take Daniel's hand, leading him off to the side, to the center of the stables to speak to him herself, none of them seeming to notice when the bag of apples shifted or one or two rolled out, "Daniel," she began, "If you want to have a life together, a family…then, there's one important lesson I can impart on you. It's what it means to be a parent. You always have to do what's best for your children."

"Thank you," Daniel nodded, smiling, "I understand. Because that's what you're doing now."

Cora nodded along as well, "Yes. It is."

Before shoving her hand into Daniel's chest with her magic and_ ripping his heart out_.

"Mother!" Regina screamed at the sight, covering the small, startled cry that came from behind the apples.

Lyssa pressed her hands to her mouth, her eyes wide as Daniel fell to the ground, Cora stepping back as Regina ran to his side, the little girl breathing heavily, nearly hyperventilating at the image of Cora holding someone's heart in her hand.

"No!" Regina dropped to her knees, trying to check on Daniel, "No! No, no, no…NO!" she screamed as Cora just crushed Daniel's heart into dust.

Lyssa's eyes filled with tears as she froze, watching, horrified as the dust drifted down from Cora's gloves to form a small pile on the floor…and Daniel's chest ceased to rise.

"Mother, why have you done this?!" Regina demanded, cradling Daniel in her arms.

"Because this is your happy ending," Cora said simply, no hint of guilt or remorse or any other emotion other than satisfaction in her voice.

"What?!"

"Oh, you have to trust me, Regina," her mother stated, "I know best. Love is weakness, Regina. It feels real now. At the start, it always does. But, it's an illusion. It fades. And then, you're left with nothing. But power, true power, endures. And then, you don't have to rely on anyone to get what you want. I've saved you, my love."

Lyssa felt like openly sobbing at what she was seeing and hearing, at the tears streaming down Regina's face as her mother stood over her, smiling like nothing was wrong. But she couldn't move, she couldn't do anything but sit there, shaking her head, not wanting to believe what she'd just seen.

"You've ruined everything," Regina sobbed, "I loved him. I loved him!"

"Enough!" Cora snapped, "I've endured this long enough. Now, clean yourself up, wipe away your tears, because now…you're going to be Queen."

Lyssa hadn't even realized she was starting to shove the bag of apples harder than ever, throwing all her strength and weight behind it till the bag toppled over and she fell into the stables. She looked up to see Cora had already stalked out, leaving her daughter crying over Daniel without a second thought. She scrambled to her feet, or tried to, but her legs gave out under her, and she half crawled, half scuttled over to Regina and Daniel.

"Danny!"

Regina looked up, her eyes wide in horrified shock to see Lyssa making her way to them, the girl looking like she had been through the hell she felt was swirling inside her, "Lyssa! You need to go," she tried to push the girl away, but Lyssa's gaze was on Daniel.

"Danny you can't go!" she cried, reaching out to grab his cloak with her little hands curling into fists, trying to shake him but not even managing to shift the fabric she seemed so tired, "You can't! You're the hero! You're supposed to rescue the princess! You gotta save her from her wicked mama! You can't…you have to get up…you can't be gone…"

Regina shook her head as Lyssa broke down in sobs, reaching out to grab the little girl and pull her into her arms, the terrible truth hitting her. There was no way Lyssa would know that Daniel wasn't getting up if she hadn't seen what Cora had done. Even a child, even one as young as Lyssa would understand that crushing heart meant you were dead, even if she might not understand the concept of life or death to that magnitude just yet.

Lyssa had SEEN Cora do that.

She'd seen Daniel die right in front of her.

And she was breaking down in her arms over it, and all she could do was hold the girl to her, rocking them both for what little comfort they could find, pressing kisses to her hair as Lyssa clung to her, openly sobbing as tears fell down her own cheeks.

Daniel was gone.

"I'm sorry," Lyssa wept into her cloak, "I'm sorry Gina…"

"You have NOTHING to be sorry about," Regina reassured her, stroking her hair, trying to find something to say that would make them both feel better, but there was nothing to be said, "This was NOT your fault…"

"I tried to help," Lyssa continued, not seeming to hear her in her grief, "I tried to stop it. I tried to find you first. I didn't tell, Gina. I _didn't_. She told Cora, _she_ told, and Cora knew, and I heard it, and I wanted to help but…but…but…"

She couldn't even finish she was crying so hard.

Regina just held her tighter, closing her eyes as she too sobbed, hearing Lyssa's heart breaking just as her own was, and knowing that this little innocent girl had witnessed something so terrible and traumatic, because of her, because she was trying to help.

She didn't know what Lyssa was talking about, the girl was mumbling so much in the end that she wasn't sure exactly what she'd said, but she knew Lyssa was blaming herself for this, and that was not a burden the girl or anyone, not even herself, should have to hold.

All she could do was keep rocking them, trying her best to dry both their tears, but they never seemed to stop.

~8~

Regina stood, blank faced, on a small podium, in a large white gown, allowing the seamstresses to alter and fit her into her…wedding dress. But she hardly noticed, her gaze was, instead, on Lyssa, the girl sitting curled up on the ground next to the mirror. She looked haggard, more than a three year old should, her face pale, her eyes red, looking so scared and small and not like the bright and happy girl she had known.

Her heart broke more as she took Lyssa in, knowing that what had happened last night had done this to her. That Cora had done this to her. She hadn't slept at all last night, neither of them, they hadn't even left the stables till dawn started to peek out. She had left word with Lyssa's mother that the girl was with her, made up some story that she had a bad dream and sought her out and it was FINE, not wanting Lyssa to get in more trouble with her mother.

She couldn't help but look at Lyssa as she stood there, both of them were in a near daze, their minds constantly having them relive what they'd seen Cora do. All she wanted right in that moment was to scoop Lyssa into her arms and carry her off, to take her away from the manor and castles and kings and mothers and just…take care of her.

No one deserved to see what Lyssa had last night.

"Wow…" a voice breathed behind her and she spared a glance into the mirror to see Snow White had entered and was looking up at her, not seeming to notice any of the other seamstresses or servants in the room, "You are most certainly the fairest of them all!"

"Thank you, dear," Regina said softly, trying to keep her voice strong and full of any emotion at all save the empty one she heard in her ears. She looked down, frowning when she saw Lyssa flinch and close her eyes, not seeming to want to look at Snow at all.

"I hope for my wedding day I will be as beautiful."

"I'm sure you will be."

"I know you and Daniel will be so happy together."

Regina blinked, turning around, "What?" she breathed as she nearly gaped at Snow White…

She had NEVER said Daniel's name to the girl, she hadn't spoken a word of it…so how had Snow known?

"Well, I just knew your mother would let you marry him!" Snow beamed, "Once she knew how happy it'd make you, once she knew how much you love him. You have such a wonderful mother. She would do anything for your happiness."

"Snow," Regina swallowed, "Did…did you…tell her about me and Daniel?"

"Yes."

Regina let out a breath at that, feeling as though her world were caving in...and then Lyssa's words came back to her. The girl had been crying that 'she told Cora,' not Lyssa but someone else. She hadn't connected it then, not with everything that happened…but she had meant Snow. SNOW had told Cora about the stable boy…and Cora had told her it was Daniel. Lyssa had heard Snow tell her, she had tried to come warn them about it…when she'd been too late.

"But I…told you…_very specifically _not to."

She was trying hard, very_ very_ hard, not to start shouting at the girl. Because if she got angry now, she would yell, and she knew, in the back of her mind, that that was the LAST thing Lyssa needed right now was her to lose her head or her temper, not after last night, not after seeing what Cora had done.

"I'm sorry," Snow frowned, seeming to realize that Regina wasn't as happy about it as she thought the woman would be, "I just didn't want you to lose your mother. Like I've lost mine. Are you mad?"

Regina nearly said yes…till she heard a sniffle behind her that could only come from Lyssa, the girl was already blaming herself for not being fast enough, if she openly said, at that moment, that she _did_ blame Snow…it would be like saying she blamed Lyssa too, and she would _not_ do that to the little girl that had tried so hard to save Daniel, "No. I'm not mad at all. You were just trying to help me. However, I'm not marrying Daniel. This dress is for your father."

Snow frowned, "But…I thought…you were in love?"

Regina opened her mouth to defend their love…when she heard a door open on the other side of the room, behind her, and she could just GUESS who it was that had come to see her interact with the princess. If she said anything wrong now…she didn't want to know what else her mother would take from her next.

"So did I," Regina made very sure to keep her voice steady, "But I was wrong. Daniel has run away. What I had with Daniel wasn't real. It was an infatuation. You see, that's the thing about love. It can come in the most unexpected places. Your father and I have something even more special, because it's not just about the two of us. It's about all of us. We're going to be a family."

"We are?!" Snow beamed so widely at that that Regina nearly wanted to smack it off her face.

There had been another little girl that beamed like that when they would 'play family' and that was the _only_ child she was sure she would ever be able to stomach smiling at the thought of her being their mother, a little girl that would smile and pretend Daniel was her father too. But right now, that little girl didn't seem like she was ever going to smile again.

"That's right," she nodded, "I'm going to be your stepmother, and I couldn't be happier."

"Me too," Snow beamed, leaning in to hug Regina as she stepped off the podium.

"Snow," Cora's voice sounded, making Snow spin around, startled, though Regina seemed to know her mother was there, listening, watching, though both women seemed a little surprised to see one of the kitchen servants with her, her blonde head bowed as she stood behind Cora, "You need to go to your room and help with the packing. Your father wants you ready for the journey, and we're heading to your castle first thing in the morning."

"You're both going to love it there," Snow looked at them.

"I know we will," Cora agreed, watching as Snow practically skipped out of the room before she waved the seamstresses off, leaving her and the kitchen maid alone with her daughter…or so she thought.

Regina glared at her mother as she moved to stand before Lyssa, the girl having froze at the sound of Cora's voice, starting to shake and appearing completely terrified. She was NOT going to let her mother get to the girl if she could help it. She had already lost Daniel, she was NOT going to lose Lyssa too.

"Well-played, dear," Cora observed her daughter, "You're learning."

"I should change," Regina muttered, turning around, "I wouldn't want to ruin the dress before my big day."

"I am so proud of you."

Regina froze from where she was about to pick up Lyssa and take her with her, not about to trust the girl to either of their mothers, not when Lyssa's mother was standing right there and not doing a thing about how her daughter was clearly upset and scared out of her mind. She turned, frowning at her mother, "You knew the King was traveling through our land, didn't you? That steed with Snow on it…it didn't go wild on its own, did it?"

"I have no idea what you're saying," Cora blinked as innocently as she could, which was not innocently at all.

"I should've let her die on that horse," Regina frowned, "You never would have found out about Daniel if I hadn't."

"Ooh," Cora tsked, shaking her head, "I'm sure I'd have found some way," she leaned over to glance at Lyssa, "Little girls never stay silent for long, it seems."

"What are you talking about?" Regina glared, stepping to the side to block her mother's view of Lyssa again.

"It seems another little girl decided to shout to the whole castle that you were in danger," Cora mused, almost sounding amused by the thought, "Oh I was able to pass it off as a dream, of course, but…there was one servant in particular that she said more to, wasn't there?"

"My Lady, I _never_ believed..." Lyssa's mother began, finally speaking up, "She was ranting nonsense about Lady Regina and that Daniel boy being in danger from you, but I…"

Regina felt the air leave her lungs as Cora reached into the woman's chest and pulled out her heart, just like she had Daniel's, cutting her off, "Mother, no!"

She could guess enough from what had been said, from what Lyssa had wept to her, that she hadn't told anyone about their plans to leave, or even about them being together, and as far as Lyssa's mother was concerned, she had just thought Cora was going to hurt her and Daniel for no reason. Lyssa hadn't broken her promise, Snow had…but now the girl's mother was paying for it.

"Mama!" Lyssa tried to run forward, hearing Regina call out, and saw her mother's heart being held in Cora's hand.

"Don't!" Regina tried, grabbing Lyssa and pulling her back, but it was too late…Cora had already crushed the woman's heart. She quickly turned Lyssa away, hugging the girl to her legs as she sobbed, this was too much, this was FAR too much for a little girl to endure, "Stop it, mother!"

"I'll stop when I'm sure you'll _listen_ to me," Cora nearly sneered at her, getting a headache from the constant yelling, "And there's only one way to do that, it seems."

"What…"

Regina's question was cut off when Lyssa disappeared from her arms in a swirl of purple smoke, reappearing across from her in Cora's hold.

"NO!" she screamed as Cora shoved her hand into Lyssa's small chest and pulled out her tiny heart, "Mother no, please!"

"I am SO disappointed in you, darling," Cora sighed as Lyssa fell to her knees, Regina scrambling over to grab the girl, "If this is what I must do to teach you a lesson," she started to squeeze Lyssa's heart, causing the girl to gasp in pain, "Then I suppose I must…"

"I've learned!" Regina cut in, her voice so desperate and agonized, "I swear, mother, I will do whatever you want, anything you want, without complaint, I won't fight you just…just stop! Just leave Lyssa alone! Spare her, please!"

Cora continued to squeeze the girl's heart even as she appeared to consider her daughter's pleas, "I suppose that will do, for now," she warned, striding over and crouching down just to shove the girl's heart back in as gently as a horse would kick a grown man in the chest, standing just as quickly, "I trust she'll be silent about this."

It wasn't a question but Regina nodded frantically, clutching Lyssa closer, knowing that the girl would likely never speak to anyone else again after this trauma, "Yes, mother."

"Good," Cora smirked, "Then I expect you to see to it that the dress doesn't soil too much before the big day. And_ do_ try to get some sleep, we can't have the bride-to-be showing up as though she's in need of a sleeping curse."

Regina just curled Lyssa to her, the girl clinging to her in pain and fear as she watched her mother stride out of the room, a wave of her hand causing Lyssa's mother's body to disappear god knew where. She closed her eyes, "I'm sorry," she murmured to the girl in her arms, feeling herself starting to shake as Lyssa was, "I'm so sorry," she sniffled, willing herself not to cry, knowing she needed to be strong now, stronger than she had ever been, for Daniel, for Lyssa.

She pressed a kiss to Lyssa's hair as the girl started to quietly cry in her arms, swearing to herself that this was the LAST time anyone hurt that dear, sweet girl again. Not while she was alive. Lyssa had endured more suffering at three years old in just the last 12 hours than anyone ever should and she would NOT let it happen again.

She swore on Lyssa's heart, she swore on Daniel's memory, she swore on her own soul, _no one_ was going to hurt Lyssa ever again.

A/N: I was tempted to put another Hook/Lyssa flashback here, but I feel like after the revelation in the last chapter, this one was needed more ;)

Poor Lyssa though :( You'd figure, after this, she'd be much more against Cora than Snow, but to her, Snow was the catalyst for all of this. To her, if SHE, as a three year old could keep a secret (even if it was because she knows how dangerous Cora really was) then why couldn't Snow? Cora might have been manipulative and used her magic to hurt Regina at times, but to Lyssa, she's only seen 3 years of that, and barely remembers some of it. She's going to see her mother suffer _much more_ while living with Leopold without Cora around and she's going to_ remember_ that more clearly, so she's going to be focused more on Snow as the reason it all happened than Cora hurting Daniel. To her, Daniel was one wound Cora inflicted that would sting all the years, but what Regina was left with, in being Queen, was something that she was going to have to endure every single day and that's because Snow wanted a mother and Snow couldn't keep a secret :(

A lot of why Lyssa is against Snow will come from the fact she was so young when it all happened. She remembers key moments where Cora hurt Regina but only bore witness to a handful of them. She's going to remember years and years of her suffering as queen and witness ALL of them :'( So to her, Cora hurt Regina, but Snow condemned her :( We'll examine a lot of the way she suffered with Leopold as the story goes on.

When we're hurt, we hurt and we lash out at and put blame on the ones that we perceive as the responsible party for our pain. To Regina, she always expected her mother to attack Daniel if she ever found out about him, it was why she kept the secret of her love with her life, to have someone else just blurt it out and giving her hope that the secret would last long enough to get her happy ending, and then have it ripped away...I think she would blame Snow more than Cora. Cora was always going to hurt Daniel_ if_ she found out, and she found out (after all that time) _because_ of Snow :( In this story, especially in their minds, Lyssa clearly knew that the two were together, and if a 3 year old can keep a secret, so could Snow have, but Snow didn't :(

I had to wonder, as Lyssa did too, if Snow didn't tell Cora because, on some level, she felt like she would be losing her new 'mother' if Regina ran away with Daniel? The entire manipulation for Cora was first introduced as how hard it was for SNOW to lose her mother, not about a mother losing her daughter. So it struck me, as I was writing Lyssa here, maybe it was never about Snow wanting Regina to have her mother, but subconsciously Snow realizing she was about to lose her next mother just like she lost her first, and wanting to do something that would 'give' Cora her daughter back but also keep Regina in her life (because wouldn't Regina still be around if she could openly marry Daniel?). The way Cora phrased it, focusing on Snow and her mother and losing her, it sounded too much like she wanted Snow to think she was losing her next mother and pushed her to prevent that :(

Some notes on reviews...

It might actually take Lyssa longer than Regina to get on friendly terms with Snow lol :) But it's mostly coming from a place of her inner-child and what she experienced and thinks/knows from her childhood. Regina was older and knew more, and has experienced some level of revenge against Snow, where Lyssa is coming in without the 28 year victory and not wanting to be friends with Snow, she may come around one day but it'll take a while ;)

There will be a lot of talks and revelations about how many external factors came in to make Regina dark. There will be one crucial thing that Snow hasn't realized about the relationship Regina had with Leopold that Lyssa will bring up at one point. Something Snow SHOULD know or realize, but because of how young she was and how she _saw/heard_ nothing of that particular aspect, she literally will not have even considered it till Lyssa throws it in her face and forces her to realize exactly how much hell Regina went through in being with Leopold. She won't be very quiet in defending her mother, that's for sure ;)

I'm glad you liked the chapter :) I felt like she was a bit of a scapegoat too at times :( I wish ABC was like Disney, they only do about 4 seasons, sometimes 5, of a show and that's it. I think Supernatural was meant to be 5 seasons but then got renewed for 5 more near the end. It's funny how some stories that need more seasons get cut off, like Merlin was also 5 seasons but had SO much potential for the storyline to go further, and OUAT is at 5 seasons and probably should have ended at 2 :/ Oh jeez, Lyssa around Robin and all of that mess? Oh boy. Lyssa isn't the sort to get manipulative or spiteful, but she is NOT going to be happy at all that Robin hurt her mother so much and she has a way of saying things where she's not actively TRYING to make you feel bad, but you still end up feeling bad or even worse lol. I have a handful of moments planned where Lyssa will explode yup, she's NOT going to be happy with the heroes and their reaction to the whole Archie thing. I can say I have a Crossover planned for Piper, Lyssa, and Graham's OC (once I get to her) so we'll see all three OUAT series combined in a one shot at the very least ;) I do have a Graham/OC planned, and it's killing me, because I want to get her out NOW but I feel like I should really finish Lyssa and catch Piper up first -sigh- The woes of having too many OCs and too little time lol :) Unfortunately the Daniel return already happened :( But Lyssa will hear about it and she's going to be devastated to know the events of it :'( No worries at all, I love reading any length review so ramble to your heart's content ;)

I understand your feelings on the show and Regina :) I feel like, given Regina had 0 idea about the fairytale thing Henry was going on about in the first episode, that Henry didn't start therapy because of that. From a personal experience, my thought is that he found out he was adopted and refused to talk to Regina, so she set him up with Archie so he'd have someone to talk to. It had nothing at all to do with making him think he was crazy in the very beginning. My experience is my cousins. I have 3 that are all adopted, different times, at different ages, and from different people. They all reacted differently to finding out they were adopted. One of my cousins pulled away, wouldn't talk to my aunt or uncle or his siblings, started getting very quiet and distant in school, and my aunt and uncle chose to take him to therapy so that he would have _someone_ to talk to if he wouldn't talk to them. That's what I honestly think happened with Henry in the beginning at least. In this story, Lyssa being Regina's daughter will (not justify but) explain A LOT of how Regina reacted to Emma and the threat of losing Henry, which we'll see as the story goes. She's spent a lot of time and emotion protecting Lyssa from people that she felt were threats, people that were going to take her daughter away, having no idea what happened to Lyssa for her to not be in Storybrooke after the Curse, she's even more protective of Henry and 'threats' against him, the threat of Emma taking her son away :( This story will also take into account that we have 0 insight to what Regina REALLY was like as a mother in the 10 years before Henry found out about the adoption and the curse. If she can be a 'wonderful' mother to Lyssa WHILE being the Evil Queen, then there is no reason at all for her to be a poor mother to Henry when she's Just-Regina, which is something that the story will explore, if she was really a terrible mother before Henry found out about the curse/adoption or if he's projecting his current feelings back on past memories. That's actually what I really think happened, because everything Henry says about why he doesn't want to be with Regina or why it's so bad to live with her, it all sounds like it's coming from AFTER he found out about the curse, how he calls her the Evil Queen and other things, to me it sounds far too recent to be his entire 10 years with her before that moment. I can say though that, as for this story, there's going to be A LOT of things that the heroes think happened or things they think of Regina that are going to be completely wrong about her. 'There are two sides to every story' is going to be a very BIG theme in this fanfiction as will the thought that 'not everything is what it appears to be.' This story is going to explore what Regina would have done or been like if she HAD a child there that was depending on her, that she was raising, that was looking to her for everything especially love and care. Some events will still happen, but the reasoning and actuality of it will be VERY different. This story will follow Rumple as he is in the show so he'll be as redeemed as the actual writers make him, Hook will try to redeem himself like he does in the show but for different reasons than in the show ;)

Oh the RegalBeliever will be a big thing here, Lyssa is going to show not just Henry, but many others, a different side to Regina and her story ;) And maybe Henry's jealousy over having to share his mother might push him to actually talk to her and read her story ;) I love the suggestion for the pairing name ;)

I actually have it up on my tumblr and in the 5th chapter of this story, when I resumed it, that the DW stories will be resumed in April and Big Bang Theory will be resumed after I post the Lord of the Rings story once this one is finished ;)

Oh I can say there's a lot more to Lyssa's views on black and white and grey than just Regina being heroic and villainous ;) She's going to have a first hand view of things Regina does and an understanding of why she does them, HOW she does them, and what is going on during them that the heroes are lacking ;) That's something that will be explored in this story too. Regina isn't truly a villain, she was hurt and angry and scarred and made bad choices and that is HUMAN nature. But heroes point fingers at bad choices and call them villains. But if heroes are hurt and angry and make bad choices, it's human nature and that is ALL it is. Heroes are heroes, if they make bad choices then they are 'just human.' Villains are villains, if they make bad choices they aren't 'just human' they're just villains :( To Lyssa, she sees it more as what sort of human being are you than what is your label ;)

Lyssa's growth is something I'm very much looking forward to :) I think a lot of her childlikeness stems from how young she was when traumatic events happened and other characters trying harder to shield her from some things that would help her grow more. There's going to be some betrayal and major challenges coming for Lyssa, some very deep and important choices she's going to make that'll help her really start to grow :) Regina, I think, will try to pull a 'Oh, ok dear, I...understand, and I'm...happy for you' thing with Lyssa, being supportive, but the second Lyssa's turned her back and Regina's alone with Hook, the Evil Queen would come out, fireballs in hand, and threatening the removal of another body part if he hurts her daughter ;) ;)

I actually think it might be easier for Regina, having Lyssa and her father being the two she loves. I think, as life goes on, once people have children, THEY become the most important and the ones you'd do anything to protect. I think Henry I would see Lyssa as a granddaughter figure and volunteer to be the sacrifice so Regina won't have to kill her 'daughter,' essentially taking the choice and burden from Regina, making it so she won't have to choose. I like to think, if Emma had been in the Enchanted Forest when Regina altered Pan's curse, Snow would have had to choose between her husband or her daughter in terms of sacrifice and I can't see her killing Emma nor would Charming LET her choose their daughter over himself. So it's believable that she could have two familial loves to pick from, her old father who's lived a full life vs her young daughter that's only just begun to live her life. I can say that there will be more to Henry I and Regina's talks when the Curse is about to be cast that helps her make her choice and helps it be just the tiniest bit easier on her ;)


	11. The Cricket Game

The Cricket Game

Hook grinned to himself as he anchored the Jolly Roger to the docks of Storybrooke, quickly jumping off the side and onto the dock when he saw that the coast was clear. He turned in after thought to assist Cora down, "Well, my dear Cora, this is where we shall part ways. Thank you for everything. It's time for me to skin my crocodile and find my lady love," he gave her a mocking bow before he turned to walk off.

Cora, however, had other ideas, merely disappearing in a plume of purple smoke and reappearing before him, "You might want to rethink this."

"We had a deal," his expression soured to a glare, "Get out of my way."

"Believe it or not, I'm doing you a favor."

"By preventing my desires?"

"Ask yourself how I'm doing that."

"By using your dark magic," he nearly rolled his eyes at her.

"Exactly," she nodded, "Magic is here. And that makes matters a bit more complicated. If you go off half-cocked after an empowered Rumpelstiltskin, do you know what'll happen?" Hook was silent, but his expression said it all, "So, you do. Good."

"Hey!" a voice called from the side, a fisherman spotting them and heading over, "You folks need anything? Tackle shop don't open until morning. But, if you want to go out and try and snare some of New England's finest pescatarian creatures, I'd be happy to open early for ya."

"No, thank you," Hook muttered, "We're fine."

"It's a fine vessel you got there," the man eyed the Jolly Roger, "When'd you get in?"

"What vessel?" Cora smirked.

"Why that one right…" he blinked as Cora waved her hand, making the boat disappear, "Hey, that's a neat trick. You some kind of magician back in our land?"

Cora rolled her eyes now, seeing that the man wasn't afraid of her, clearly not recognizing her and waved her hand at him, turning him into a fish.

Hook huffed and turned, kicking the flopping creature back into the water with the smallest bit of compassion he could muster. He should have just based its head in and cooked it for dinner, but there was something about being in this place, knowing he was going to see Lyssa again that kept him from doing so.

"What did you do with my ship?" he demanded of Cora.

"I hid it from prying eyes," she waved the question off, "For what we both want to do, we need the element of surprise. Now you ready to listen to me?"

His jaw clenched at that, but he gestured her on, "Go on, Your Majesty. What now?"

"Let's go have a little look at this Storybrooke, shall we?"

~8~

Lyssa frowned as she stood before a floor-length mirror in Regina's bedroom of her manor-style home, eyeing herself in the reflection.

"You don't like it."

She glanced back to see Regina sitting on her bed and shook her head, "No, it's not that…"

Regina just smiled softly, getting up to move beside her daughter, "Almost 30 years later, I can still tell when you're lying."

That…actually warmed her heart, both that Lyssa was attempting to lie (it meant the girl hadn't changed much in not wanting to hurt her feelings) but also that she could still tell. She would never tell anyone, not even Lyssa, the thoughts that had plagued her over the near 20 years she'd been alone in Storybrooke, the fears that struck her about why her daughter hadn't managed to come there. She had made arrangements, she had enchanted Hook's ship to transport his crew and Lyssa to Storybrooke with the curse, to give them memories but in a way that was similar to herself, that they would still retain knowledge of their former lives, or at least Hook and Lyssa would.

It had been the deal she'd struck with Hook, his memories retained so his revenge against the Dark One could be sought, for Lyssa's safe arrival in the land the magic would create in the Curse.

She hadn't wanted Lyssa to be caught in the chaos of the curse, she hadn't wanted the girl to be near her if it failed. So she'd made precautions, ensured that Hook would guard her, that his ship, once he and his crew were onboard, would be enchanted to withstand the curse and arrive in Storybrooke with everyone.

When Lyssa hadn't appeared, when she'd gone to the docks and seen no ship…she'd thought of all sorts of terrible things. That Hook had betrayed her, that he'd hurt Lyssa, that her magic had failed and trapped her daughter in a desolate wasteland of the Enchanted Forest, that the Dark One had known about her daughter all along and had done this on purpose, made it so Lyssa couldn't cross to this realm to spite her.

She had been stuck, there was no magic in Storybrooke, no way to get back to the Forest without destroying everything she'd worked so hard to build. And she'd had hope, at first, she had actually had hope that Lyssa would come, and when she hadn't…she knew nothing short of death would keep her daughter from finding a way to her. She'd feared the worst.

But she still couldn't bring herself to confront Gold openly, at the time she had thought he wouldn't know what she was talking about. She had gone to great lengths to making sure the Dark One never found out about Lyssa or her attachment to the girl. But she'd feared he had discovered it. The opportunity to confront him had come when she began asking questions of adopting a child. She had watched his reaction and expression carefully, and saw that he genuinely thought this was going to be her first child raised. He still had no idea, looking back on it, about Lyssa…till now.

There was little he could do in this realm, he wasn't as powerful as in the Forest. Because this was an echo world, one created by magic and that magic used to sustain the town. Magic was dimmed there when used by others, not as powerful. Things she could have done easily in the Forest couldn't be done the same there, and it was true for the Dark One too.

A wraith? Really? That was the BEST the Dark One could come up with? It was small compared to what she knew he was capable of for making people suffer. It had told her all she needed to know about his power in Storybrooke. She was sure she could handle him now, she was sure she could protect her daughter more here than she could in the Forest. Here she was Mayor, she wasn't Queen, there were more laws here that would make harm towards Lyssa Emma's responsibility to see to on top of it all.

Still, after so many years apart, she had feared that she had forgotten details about her daughter, things that faded with so much time going by. The smallest things that mothers could do that she had been distraught to think she wouldn't be able to do again. Telling when Lyssa was lying or trying to lie was one of them.

She often found herself observing Henry as he grew older, seeing what mannerisms he might have similar to Lyssa, comparing the two of them in her mind. How Henry reacted to being told 'no, you can't have cookies before dinner' was vastly different from how Lyssa did. How Henry handled being grounded, or sick, or hurt, they were different. But the things that made him laugh, the tickle times, the bedtime stories, so much more were close to Lyssa. She felt like she could remember her daughter through observing her son, and was so relieved to know she still knew her daughter well after all this time.

Lyssa gave her an apologetic look, "The clothing here is…odd."

"It DOES take some getting used to," Regina agreed, thinking about the pant-suits she was fond of wearing now, looking at the girl and what she was wearing.

It was a dress she had found in the back of her closet, a royal blue dress with three-quarter sleeves, a bit of an asymmetrical neckline, that went down to the knees, and black heels, her hair up in a french bun. The girl looked SO out of place and uncomfortable in the dress, despite blue being her go-to choice for outfits in the forest, it really just didn't suit her.

She smiled, a thought striking her, "How about this?" she waved her hand, as swirl of smoke moving around Lyssa, the girl completely unflinching as magic was used on her, and when it cleared… "That's better."

Lyssa turned, beaming as she saw the dress her mother had magically changed her into, "It's perfect, mama!"

It was a lighter shade of blue, closer to the color of her eyes, a little fitted on top, with thin straps over her shoulders, a flowing skirt that went to her knees and had more movement to it, making her want to spin around and watch it expand…which she did. She even had little blue flats on her feet instead of heels, which she was relieved about. Her hair was held back, half up, half down, by a light blue ribbon to. It was very her, even if it was a little shorter than she was used to, but it seemed to be the 'norm' for Storybrooke, for the clothing of this land, that the skirts not cover the ankles as was proper in the forest.

"I love it, mother," she turned to smile at Regina, "30 years later, you still know my tastes," she teased, leaning in to hug her mother.

"You have very simple ones," Regina murmured, relishing in the hug. She hadn't gotten many of them in her life, and she marked Lyssa's growth by the changes in the hugs, from her legs to her knees, to her waist and chest, to her shoulder…she was a grown woman now, near enough, and the fact that she still enjoyed their little dress-up times meant a lot to her.

For as much as Snow White had wanted to play dress-up in the Forest, constantly changing in and out of dresses and forcing her to do the same, it was never forced when it came to Lyssa. The girl had seemed to notice how unhappy it made her mother to do that with the princess and never asked to do it…till Regina had suggested they play it instead. It had been a lighter time for them, something they enjoyed.

Lyssa had been the only bright light during her time as Queen, the girl often making things that she resented doing with Snow or Leopold enjoyable to do with her.

And it meant more than she could say that Lyssa trusted her to use magic on her, even after everything that happened in the Enchanted Forest, it meant the world to her that one of her children appreciated her magic and didn't try to restrict it. Henry, it seemed, couldn't get past the 'magic,' seeing it as something inherently evil, just because she used it or Gold used it.

He had tried to run away when she'd attempted getting him back from David, as was her legal right in this world as his adoptive mother, especially with Emma having signed away ALL her rights to Henry in the adoption. Henry had gone up to his room...and tried to sneak out through the window.

The window on the second floor of the house.

The window with no tree, gutter, or lattice close enough to make it to the ground unharmed.

He had used BED SHEETS, of all things, bed sheets to make an unsteady rope to climb to the ground on!

Name one woman, one mother, in any realm that wouldn't be scared out of their mind that their child was going to fall and get hurt when they had the 'brilliant' idea to use sheets tied together to climb 20 feet down out of a window! Name one woman, one mother, that wouldn't try to pull them back into their bedroom and ground them till they were 30. She had used the first thing she could to get him away from the sheet rope and make sure he wasn't going to fall, her magic, to create vines to reach out and snatch him off of it, to get him back into his room.

And he saw that as being evil, he hadn't even stopped to consider he was using bed sheets that could not have been tied tightly enough by a child to sustain his entire weight without, at some point, coming undone, he hadn't stopped to think he might fall quite a number of feet that would have hurt him severely had she not gotten to him when she had. He just saw that she used magic, and on him, and called it evil. Only fairies, to him, it seemed, had good magic. Everything that came from HER had to be evil magic or dark, he just assumed every use of magic was bad if it was her doing it. And that broke her heart, because she could remember a time, using magic around another child who beamed and clapped and adored the little tricks she would play with her magic to entertain the girl.

It was funny, that Lyssa had actually SEEN her being the Evil Queen, had experienced her at her height, and still trusted her and didn't judge her magic, didn't think it was an automatic evil, yet Henry, who had only READ about the Evil Queen in a book thought everything had to be dark if it came from her. It was funny how Lyssa had encouraged her magic, but Henry used it as an ultimatum to winning him back, to stop or he wouldn't want anything to do with her.

Then again, Lyssa was the only one that knew the truth of the entire situation.

Daniel...when Daniel had come back...she had checked on Henry afterwards, her son had NO idea who the stable boy was, to him Daniel was a stranger...despite Daniel's story being IN the storybook he was so fond of, despite him being able to recognize other people as their characters from the pictures in the book. Which meant that...he hadn't actually READ her story at all, not her past, not who she used to be before she became known as the Evil Queen. He didn't see her as Regina, he just saw her as evil, and that hurt to know her own son hadn't bothered to read her story and see WHY she became what she was, to see who had had a hand in making her what she was.

But here was Lyssa, the girl who still adored being magically dressed up just as much as she had as a child, who still trusted her, despite everything, and words couldn't describe how grateful she was for that.

"I had to get them from someone," Lyssa nudged her as she pulled away, recalling the more simpler dresses her mother had preferred to wear whenever she could, her face scrunching as she recalled the outfits she'd worn most of the time though, "When you weren't trying to be the Evil Queen."

Regina gave a light chuckle at that, "Those dresses were rather provocative."

Lyssa nodded, "Leather isn't easy to move in either."

Regina began to nod at that, before blinking and looking at the girl, "When did _you_ wear_ leather_, young lady?"

Lyssa's eyes widened, not having wanted that to slip, but talking about those days reminded her of Killian and the pirates and the events they had all gotten into and it just came out, "Um…pirate ship?" she hoped that would be enough for now, she wanted to speak to her mother about Killian, tell her about the man she loved, but do it properly, when her mother wasn't half dead on her feet and overwhelmed by their reunion.

Regina's eyes narrowed at that, "Telling me Hook continued to guard you during the curse breaking in the Enchanted Forest does NOT explain you WEARING leather," she crossed her arms, "Explain."

Lyssa gave a little embarrassed look, "We're going to be late for the dinner…" she tried to remind her mother about the invitation they had gotten from Emma, a celebration at Granny's to welcome back their lost princess and Savior, they were invited.

Regina let out a small huff, knowing that Lyssa said it because she knew she hated being late, "We are going to have a LONG talk afterwards," she warned.

Lyssa just smiled, "I look forward to it, mother."

They hadn't gotten much time to really catch up. Regina had asked her about the Forest, how she'd survived the curse for 28 years, only to find time had been frozen there for most of it. It had been very vague and generalized a story, but now they were going to a dinner and had less time to talk.

Even a threat of having to tell her mother of when she'd gotten to be a 'Pirate Queen' one time, well, she would be all too willing to say the entire story, even the harder parts to speak of, the ones that she knew her mother would be disappointed and disheartened to hear she'd done, if it meant they would talk more.

They had 28 years of talking to do, and she knew her mother was DYING to talk to someone about Henry, more than she already had, and the heroes and all of that.

She always had been the ear the Queen would speak honestly to, that would never change.

~8~

Lyssa smiled widely as she held the door open for Regina to enter the 'diner' as it was called, Granny's, for the party they could hear going on inside. There had just been a loud cheer of, 'To Mary Margaret and Emma!' when they stepped into the room, Regina holding an odd glass dish with a crinkly thin metal, tin foil she'd called it, over the top.

"Sorry we're late," Regina offered when the room fell completely silent, glares turning in her direction.

Lyssa gasped as a man with a beard grabbed a knife and held it out towards Regina, reacting instantly and holding up her hand…

The room turned to look at her in shock when the knife went flying out of Leroy's hand and embedded itself in the ceiling with a little white flash of magic.

"Sorry," Lyssa winced, "Sorry, that happens sometimes…"

"You haven't been practicing," Regina tsked her in a motherly fashion, the only one there not seeming surprised by her display of magic.

"No," Lyssa admitted with a sigh, "It was best not to let the others know I had magic. YOU taught me that, always keep an advantage to yourself."

"Yeah, I'll bet she taught you that," a man Lyssa recognized as Snow White's husband, David, scoffed, sending her a glare as he wound his arm around his wife.

"She taught me many things," Lyssa defended, seeming about to continue when Regina placed a hand on her arm to stop her. Lyssa took a breath, trying to smile despite the wary looks they were getting, "We really are sorry we're late. Mother was teaching me how the oven box works…"

"Just an oven, dear," Regina commented automatically.

"Right," Lyssa beamed at her in thanks, turning to the others that were now shifting and not seeming to know what to make of her, "It's this very useful box that cooks food and warms it and…"

"We know what an oven is, sister," the man that had grabbed the knife sneered, "What we DON'T know is what she's doing here?" he jerked a thumb at Regina.

"I invited her," Emma sighed, only to get pulled across the room by her rather peeved parents for a private word.

Lyssa frowned at that and looked at Regina in question, "They aren't happy I'm here."

"Oh," Lyssa sighed, "But if it wasn't for you, they wouldn't have been able to get back to Storybrooke. You saved them!"

"I also tried to kill them yesterday too," Regina reminded her.

Lyssa seemed troubled by her words, "You tried to stop Cora coming instead," she shook her head, recalling what her mother had said about the situation and why she had been injured at the well, "You weren't trying to _kill_ THEM, you were trying to stop HER."

Regina felt her lip quirk up at Lyssa's defense, "I did," she nodded, as though reminded of something, "Thank you dear."

Lyssa smiled, though it seemed sad, "This is why I should have stayed with you, mama, you shouldn't have sent me with Killian. Being alone for almost 30 years?" she grew sad at the thought, "You're starting to forget what it was really like, aren't you?"

Regina let out a long breath, not having missed the way Lyssa called Hook 'Killian' as she had done a few times already, but knowing this wasn't the place for such a conversation. She nodded to a table, moving to sit down with the girl across from her, "Maybe I am."

"The stories are _just_ stories," Lyssa reached out to put her hand on her mother's arm, "We know the truth," she squeezed it, "As always."

"As only," Regina agreed, smiling at little more, "I am glad to have you back, little fox."

"I don't think I'm that little anymore," Lyssa rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest to huff playfully.

"You always will be to me," Regina reminded her, starting to pull the tinfoil away from the glass container, "You're my daughter, you'll always be a cub."

"So she really IS your kid too?" a voice spoke beside them, the two women turning to see Henry standing there, frowning though it seemed almost like a pout.

"As much as you are," Regina offered, leaving it up to him to determine how much that would still be. Whatever would make him feel better about the situation.

Though her words seemed to make him shift, likely unsure how much he still considered the woman to be his mother compared to how much Lyssa obviously did.

"I'm Henry," he held out a hand to Lyssa, despite the situation, he should be polite, he was a hero, and they had manners…though he conveniently left out the fact that none of the heroes had been around to teach him the manners he had, that had all been Regina.

"I know," Lyssa smiled, reaching out to shake his hand, "Mother told me SO much about you already. I'm Lyssa, er, Analyssa."

Henry nodded, "Little fox?" he looked at his mother, a hint of betrayal in his voice.

She raised an eyebrow at the almost jealous tone mixed in there as well, "Little prince?" she countered, making him look away, caught. He couldn't be upset she had a name for Lyssa when she had one for him as well.

"So you can do magic?" he turned back to Lyssa after a moment.

"Mother taught me," Lyssa nodded, "Or, she tried to…"

"You were doing VERY well," Regina reached out to put a hand on her arm this time, "It takes time."

Lyssa tried to nod at that, to understand but it just felt like her own lessons had taken so much longer than her mother's. It WAS understandable though. Regina had a natural gift for magic, her mother had magic, she was taught by the Dark One, a powerful sorcerer…SHE, on the other hand, she wasn't that strong in magic just yet. She had a talent for it, but not a natural gift. Anyone could learn to use magic, but those that were born without the gift for it struggled more to be able to use it. Like her. They used to joke that she was a sorceress's apprentice in the Enchanted Forest.

Her mother had only taught her it when she caught her reading Cora's spellbook one day. She had NEVER seen her mother as angry as that day, and that was saying something for the Evil Queen. From that point on, Regina had decided to teach her herself about magic and how to use it. She could heal, smaller wounds and bruises so far, but she hadn't been able to practice in a long time. She could move small objects, conjure small things that were in sight. If she was really angry or really desperate, she could use her magic to shove things away from her, people or other heavy things, but it took a lot of concentration. She was pretty good with shields though, with creating protective barriers and wards, that was an area she did very well in. Regina had refused to teach her how to conjure fireballs though, she hadn't wanted to teach her many offensive spells or tricks, not wanting to think of her daughter needing to use them to fight, so a lot of her spells were about protecting herself and others, which she was grateful for…but here, in this town, with all the heroes and everyone else knowing who she was to the Queen…she would feel better if she knew how to be a little more offensive too.

"But it was white," Henry frowned.

"What?" Lyssa seemed confused at that.

"Your magic, when you moved the knife, it was white, you have GOOD magic."

Lyssa blinked, starting to frown at his implication, "You think just because the…the 'Evil Queen' taught me magic that it HAS to be dark?" she shook her head, upset now, "Fairies have different magic colors, are THEY evil? Is the Dark One's magic black? Is Cora's? No. His is red, hers is blue, mother's is purple. We ALL have different color magics! Just because someone's magic is white, doesn't mean it's good! Why else would the BLUE fairy…"

"Calm down, dear," Regina stroked her arm, knowing how upset and defensive Lyssa could get about that, about the types of magic used and what the colors meant.

It was an assumption, she knew, that many heroes made. White was light, Black was dark, and anything that wasn't white HAD to be bad magic. But it wasn't like that at all, only magic users would understand that, you didn't get to choose what color your magic was, it was just that color. Some spells could create a different color result, but for the most part, internal magic was just a color, no one knew why they were different or why their colors were what they were. It seemed, to heroes, the different colored magics only came with villains instead of those deemed good. There were fairies with blue magics and green, red and pink and orange and yet no one batted an eye at the fact that their magic wasn't white. It was only when a villain was involved did it become about colors not being pure.

"I'm sorry," Lyssa murmured to Regina, and then to Henry, "I'm sorry. But…you shouldn't assume things."

"Yeah…" Henry said awkwardly, clearly surprised at her outburst but also a little embarrassed that he…he actually HADN'T thought about that, "Me too."

"It's alright," Regina placated, looking between them, "How about some of my famous lasagna."

"Ooh, what's that?" Lyssa smiled, the tension from earlier seemingly vanished. She had been napping from the rather lengthy and emotionally draining events of yesterday when Regina had been making the meal she'd brought with her and was curious what it was. It smelled divine though.

Regina chuckled, "It's a pasta dish with layers of cheese and sauce. It's quite good, I make the best in town."

"I'm sure you do," Lyssa nodded, eager, "Your food was always the best, even in the Enchanted Forest," she gave a wistful sigh, "The apple tarts you would make for my birthday were the most tasty of the realm."

"I'll make them for you later, as a special treat," Regina winked at that, turning with a piece of lasagna on a plate for Henry, "Do you…want to join us?"

Henry, however, was looking back and forth between Lyssa and Regina, a frown on his face at Lyssa's words. She seemed to imply that Regina always made her something special to eat on her birthday, that she had cooked in the Forest for her, but…that would mean that Regina did them even when she was the Evil Queen…why would anyone accept apple-anything from the Evil Queen? But Lyssa was there and alive and…and HIS mother had done special treats for birthdays just like she had him…

"Yeah, it's my favorite," he nodded, trying to convince himself it was more because he liked the lasagna and wanted some than that he wanted to show up Lyssa that he knew what it was and that Regina had made it special for HIM too, "You always make it for my birthday…"

"She's a wonderful cook, isn't she?" Lyssa beamed, not sensing the second tone to his voice.

Henry could only nod at that, taking a bite of the lasagna, "I'm glad you came," he admitted to his mother.

"Me too," she nodded, "I'm glad that you and Lyssa could meet officially."

Lyssa's eyes widened, "Henry is my brother!"

Henry nearly choked on his next bite at that exclamation, Regina automatically reaching out to pat him on the back.

"I'm glad you realized that, dear," she chuckled at the girl.

Lyssa flushed, "I just meant…you adopted me, and you adopted Henry, so if you're both our mother, then we're siblings! Mama I always wanted a little brother or sister!"

Henry's eyes widened this time at the admission, "You did?"

She nodded, her smile starting to fade as she thought about it. She had wanted one, till she learned where exactly babies came from and how. After that point, she had never brought it up again. Because the only brother or sister she wanted was one from her mother and 'father,' as she had come to equate Daniel in her mind, and Daniel was gone, he would never come back and if she couldn't have a brother or sister from Daniel and Regina, then she didn't want one.

It was a sentiment someone else in Regina's life shared, someone she hated with all her being for it.

"Gina would have been a wonderful mother to them," Lyssa murmured, Regina's gaze growing soft, knowing Lyssa's thoughts had gone to Daniel, "I bet she was, wasn't she?"

Henry cleared his throat at that, honestly not sure what to answer. She…had been, at one time. She'd been a good mother to him, but recently, too many things had happened to say yes.

He didn't realize, though, that Lyssa wasn't asking about the last few months, but about his life in general. He hadn't even stopped to consider if Regina HAD been a good mother to him before he'd found out about the curse…

Luckily he was saved from answering by Leroy approaching, "What's this?" the man eyed the container warily.

"Oh, I made a lasagna," Regina moved to cut him a piece.

"What's the secret ingredient? Poison?"

"Why would it be poison?" Lyssa tilted her head, sounding genuinely confused, "There are only two people mother would poison, and she already did."

Leroy nearly gaped at her for her words, for how easily she was talking about the queen poisoning someone, and knowing full well that it was the King and Snow White, "Yeah, she did, didn't she?" he grew angry at that, his face hardening.

"You would want mother dead, wouldn't you?" Lyssa frowned at him, nearly startling him from her observation.

"Of course I would," Leroy grunted, "Or was my grabbing a knife not clue enough?"

"Why?'

"Because she deserves it!" he snapped.

Lyssa's expression grew solemn even as she gave a small smile, "So did they."

"Red pepper flakes," Regina cut in, sending Lyssa a warning look that these were not the people to try and defend her to, these were people fiercely loyal to Snow White that wouldn't ever consider the fact that the punishments given them might be deserved, they were the ones that would never, ever consider WHY she had gone after the two royals just see that she did, "Gives it some kick."

Leroy shot Lyssa a glare, seeming even more angry that she would imply Leopold or Snow White deserved death, and grabbed the plate, walking off to deliver it to Granny and Ruby to sniff out if there was poison in it or not.

He wouldn't put it past the Evil Queen's daughter to slip some in even if the Queen hadn't.

~8~

Lyssa did her best to stifle her yawn as she and Regina sat in the booth at Granny's, Henry having left soon after finishing his lasagna to rejoin the Charmings, much to Regina's sadness. So she had taken to trying to cheer her mother up, talking about the food of the Enchanted Forest that she used to make, compared to the food on the Jolly Roger. It had seemed to do the trick though Lyssa soon found that, the more she spoke of the Jolly Roger, the more she missed Killian. She really wanted to talk to her mother about the man she'd fallen in love with, but she would NOT do that around the heroes. Her mother had taught her many valuable life lessons, an important one being never let someone you didn't trust see your weakness.

"Come on, dear," Regina chuckled lightly, "You're going to be dead on your feet soon."

"I'm an adult now, I can stay up later," Lyssa's effort to sound adult was thwarted by her yawn right at the end.

"I'm sure you can," Regina gave her an amused look, "But you've had a very trying time and many things have happened. You must be tired."

Lyssa sighed, knowing Regina was just looking out for her, "I suppose."

"And how can you expect to rise with the sun if you stay up longer than the moon?"

Lyssa smiled at that, it was such an old saying between them. She had always been an early riser, up with the sun both her mothers used to say. But she'd always been a little harder to get to bed despite that. No matter how tired she was she always was up with the dawn, despite the time she went to bed. What Regina had said was always what made her go to bed at night, she couldn't rise with the sun and enjoy it if she was cranky from lack of sleep, and she hated being cranky.

Her mother had enough sadness in her life without her adding to it, she wanted to be like the sun to her mother, a ray of light to brighten the darkness.

"You're right," she nodded, "As always."

Regina smiled and shook her head, getting up, leading Lyssa to the door and out into the brisk night air, waving her hand to conjure a jacket for Lyssa as they went, something long and flowing, not quite jacket material but thick enough to protect her from the chill.

"Archie made a cake," Emma's voice called out from behind them as the jingle of the door sounded, "You don't want to stay for a piece?"

Regina tensed at the sound of Emma's voice, what remained of the slight happiness she'd managed to find in the middle of an evening surrounded by the glowers and distrustful looks of her enemies vanishing as she rounded to face the blonde, "We're fine, thank you."

"Ok," Emma nodded slowly, before turning to go back inside.

Lyssa glanced between the two, nudging Regina and giving her a pointed look that had the woman rolling her eyes but calling out, "Thank you."

Emma paused and turned to face her, "You just said that."

"For inviting me," Regina huffed, seeming to be struggling to say that much, "Us."

Emma shrugged, "Henry wanted it."

Lyssa looked over at Reinga for that, knowing that it meant a lot to the woman that Henry seemed to be opening himself up to her again, despite the shock of her having another child was to him. But…also knowing how much it hurt her too that they'd been invited, that SHE had been invited, just because one person wanted her there instead of it being a broader group desire. It was upsetting to her how ostracized Regina was there, how little people seemed to want to know the true woman behind the Evil Queen title.

But she knew, it was one of the burdens her mother had to bear for the choices she'd made, though she knew, as much as it pained her, the woman would never regret a single action.

"I'm glad you guys got to spend some time together," Emma added in the silence.

"It was nice to meet my brother officially," Lyssa tried to smile, though her words seemed to make Emma tense, her expression growing a little blank and hard at them. She could guess why though, Emma had NOT been happy that the Evil Queen adopted her son, that, in this world, the Evil Queen was his mother too…she doubted Emma would be happy to have the Evil Queen's daughter acknowledge that Henry was her brother too.

"Yes," Regina agreed, "I'd like to see him more. Maybe you'd consider letting him stay over some time? I…I have his room just…just waiting for him…"

Lyssa turned a concerned gaze to her mother, hearing how tense and pained she sounded, it was taking a great deal of effort for her to ask that question.

Regina, however, was feeling more than just tense or pained, she was feeling angry, a justified and righteous anger.

Because that was NOT how it should be happening. SHE was the adoptive and legal mother of Henry, SHE had the legal rights to the boy. What Emma and the Charmings were doing was against the law. Until they got papers and had a trial where they determined she was an unfit mother, something she knew was ALL too easy in this town, Henry was still legally HER child to raise and have a say in who he spent time around.

SHE should not be asking if she might see her son. SHE should not be asking the birth mother who signed away all rights to him if EMMA would consider LETTING her see her son.

Until Emma served her with papers nullifying her legal rights to the boy, she knew she would continue to feel that this was completely wrong. Because it was. In the eyes of the law, it was wrong. But the Charmings, despite their daughter being the sheriff and upholder of the law, seemed to be operating on Enchanted Forest law, where they, as rulers, could do as they pleased. They forgot this was NOT the Enchanted Forest and they were NOT the rulers here.

But she bit her tongue, because she knew that Henry would hate her more if she fought against the beloved Savior over him. It would just make him see her as even more the villain despite the fact that ANY adoptive mother on the planet would fight the same battle against the birth mother trying to take their child back.

Instead of it being a natural and human reaction, it was now a villain's.

"Oh…" Emma, for a moment, seemed startled by Regina actually asking instead of demanding, but shook her head, "I'm…I'm not sure that's best."

"Because you know so much about parenting in the five minutes you've been with him," Regina snapped, feeling the anger that had been rising in her take over, "Talk to David. At least he took care of him while you were away. Like I did, during the ten years you were away the first time."

Lyssa had to admit it was a sound argument, at least the second half was, Emma HAD given Henry up for 10 years and Regina had taken care of him, more than that, legally adopted him.

Emma, however, just glared at her, "Ok, thanks for coming."

Regina sighed, "No, wait," she called out, biting back her pride for Henry's sake, "I'm sorry. I…I'm…I'm sorry. Snapping at you, I shouldn't have done that. Will you accept my apology?"

Lyssa hoped very dearly that Emma would understand, that she would see what SHE saw in Regina's words. Everyone was so keen to see the Evil Queen instead of Regina that she feared Emma wouldn't stop and realize what had happened just now. She was terrified Emma would miss this proof that Regina was providing that not everything was what it appeared to be.

If the Evil Queen was as evil as they said…she wouldn't have apologized.

But if Regina was every bit the mother she knew the woman was, she would do_ anything_ for her child, including apologize to a woman whose entire family had wronged her so badly.

Emma did appear to notice something, not quite what Lyssa was hoping, but enough to admit, "You're right. Archie said you were trying to change. And, well, you are."

Regina tensed at that, her lips pursing at the information that had just let slip, "Dr. Hopper said I was trying?"

"Dr. Hopper?" Lyssa frowned, confused.

"Jiminy Cricket," Regina answered instantly to the question.

Emma nodded, "He said you came to see him. That you're trying not to use magic…" she trailed off a moment when Lyssa opened her mouth to say something about that, only to have Regina hold up a hand not to speak, the girl quieting though she looked troubled, "That you're trying to be a better person. You understand, I was hesitant to invite you. I asked him, and he thought it was a good idea."

"Thank you," Regina repeated, though her voice was hard, "It was. We should be going."

Lyssa threw a glance back at Emma and turned to follow her mother as she stalked away, "Henry wants you to stop using magic?" she asked, deeply troubled by that.

Her mother had tried to tell her a little more about her life in Storybrooke, about Henry, after she'd gleamed over her life as a pirate, but there was so much to tell and it had been such a long day that all she'd managed to retain was Henry had been adopted by her other, was Emma's child and Snow White's grandchild, and that he had gotten a storybook of their history, became obsessed with it and proving the curse was real to those that forgot they were fairytale characters, and had eventually broken the curse (though she hadn't made her mother add in that it was when he'd eaten a poisoned apple turnover instead of Emma).

The part about the magic ceasing was something else.

"Yes," Regina muttered, her expression hard though Lyssa could tell it was because of the cricket and not the conversation, she had tensed and gotten very cold when Emma revealed that Jiminy had told her something that was clearly private between her mother and the man, "He all but demanded I stop using magic or he would never forgive me or want to be around me again."

"But…mama, that's impossible," Lyssa sounded worried now, "For a sorceress like you to just STOP using magic…" she shook her head, reaching out to still her mother's face paced walk, turning her to face her, "It's never GOOD."

"I know," Regina sighed.

"It's going to hurt you," Lyssa was truly alarmed at Henry's request, "It could KILL you!"

"I know."

"Does HENRY know?"

"No."

"Then we need to tell him!" she turned, seeming about to run back to the diner, but Regina stopped her.

"We can't."

"Mother…"

"Do you think he would believe us, Lys?" Regina sighed, shaking her head, "He won't. He won't even think to ask others with magic, he'll just assume I'm lying about the effects to have an excuse to use magic, and it's not like the Un-Charmings are going to know anything about magic of the sort anyway, they'll just encourage that thought."

"But it would be the truth," Lyssa frowned.

Magic, for people like her mother, was an inherent thing. It was something she was born with, even if it took a while to manifest and harness due to her mother's very deep fear of her own mother's magic and a subconscious desire to be NOTHING like Cora. To ask someone born with magic to stop using it after it had manifested would be like asking someone to stop breathing, to stop BEING. And, worse yet, magic operated on emotion and intent, it needed release even if it was in the smallest of ways. To bottle it up? It would be like packing a cannon with powder, more and more and more till it was full and then lighting the fuse so it would just explode!

And then where would her mother be?

If she held the magic in to the point where the smallest thing set her off?

The destruction alone, she'd be unable to control it, and then, of course, the heroes would call her a monster and a villain and all her efforts to redeem herself in Henry's eyes would be for nothing, and none of them would admit they caused that event either.

None of them even realized her mother wasn't the one that needed redemption, but that THEY were the ones that needed her forgiveness, for the harms they caused her, for the assumptions they made about her.

They didn't even know the reason WHY she had agreed to cast Rumpelstiltskin's curse!

Oh she knew they thought they knew, but they didn't know what she knew.

She shook her head, getting confused in her thoughts and looked at her mother, seeing her appearing so defeated by the situation, by how the heroes would just assume she was lying when it was really a very deadly thing that Henry was asking her to do.

SHE may not have much magic, but when she got truly upset, she couldn't control her magic…and they were trying to ask a powerful sorceress to stop?

"You're willing to destroy yourself for Henry," Lyssa breathed, not asking a question, because she knew even as Regina nodded, that her mother would be willing to destroy much more than herself for her children.

And this? This situation? It would not end well for anyone.

~8~

Lyssa paced around a small metal room in the sheriff's station as Regina sat at a table, waiting patiently, as prim and proper and poised as a Queen should be, even if neither of them had the faintest idea why Regina had been called there by Emma. It had been such a nice time, after the diner celebration of course. She and Regina had gone back to the manor and she'd fallen asleep to Regina brushing her hair. The next morning Regina had taught her a little more about the kitchen and appliances as she made them breakfast, before going out on business in the mayor's office. She was going to pick up papers for the day and bring them to the manor to get them done from home.

Her mother had NOT returned in the best of moods, having run into Jiminy Cricket apparently and gotten into an argument. She'd walked away in the end, despite being angry with the man, and headed home to find her kitchen nearly destroyed with Lyssa covered in what looked like milk and flour. She had been trying to make a lunch for her mother and the appliances had revolted against her, or so she'd claimed. Regina was sure she hadn't laughed so hard in years and quickly magiced the place spotless…before explaining to Lyssa what a shower was and showing her how to use it, leaving the girl alone till she was sure the hot water had run out to experience it herself.

Afterwards they had sat together on the couch, Regina telling her more about her time in Storybrooke now that Lyssa was fully awake and alert, talking about the hopes for her return, the void of being a mother without her child, how Henry had helped her heal, the 10 years of raising him…before the dreaded topic of adoption came up, before the storybook appeared, before the Savior arrived to break the curse.

Lyssa had tried to find the courage to explain to her mother more about her time on Killian's ship, but kept turning the conversation back to Henry and her mother. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk, she very much did. But whenever she opened her mouth to bring him up, it felt like someone was squeezing her heart, it hurt so much to just mention his name, she didn't know how she would be able to talk to her mother and explain that he was trapped in the Enchanted Forest and she needed a way, now that magic was back in Storybrooke, to get him back.

She had vowed though, that she would tell her mother at the end of the day.

Because she really, really had to get it out. And she knew her mother would understand and do anything she could to help her. She just had to push past the initial pain…maybe she would start with the story of being the 'pirate queen,' that would actually be a very good way to introduce Killian.

Her mother would certainly ask her WHY she would play that role the way she had and she would be able to explain…it was because of love.

"Glad to see the Sheriff's station's now a family business," Regina's dry voice nearly made Lyssa jump out of her skin as she turned to see Emma and David enter the room, "Why am I here?"

Emma cast a glance at Lyssa, "You should step out…"

"Whatever you want to say to me, you can say in front of her," Regina gave her a hard look, "I assure you, she's probably heard far worse in the Enchanted Forest."

"No doubt about that one," David muttered.

Emma threw him a warning look but sighed, "You know why you're here. Because of Archie."

"Oh, it's now against the law to get into an argument with someone?" Regina rolled her eyes.

"It is if you go to their office later that night and kill them!" David glared.

"What?!" Lyssa's eyes widened.

Regina, however, while surprised, was more sedate in her reaction, "Archie's dead?"

"Stop it, Regina," David took a step towards her, "Ruby saw you going into his office last night."

"That's impossible," Lyssa stepped up as well, "Mother was with ME all night."

He snorted, his attention on Regina, "As though we'd believe one of your lackies."

"She is NOT my lackey!" Regina stood, her hands slamming on the metal table before her, "She is my _daughter_!"

"Whatever she is, she's lying to save your skin."

Regina snorted with derision at that, "Have you ever considered your precious wolf is the one lying? After everything I've done to change, to win Henry back, _why_ would I toss it all away now?"

"She wouldn't kill Jiminy over one argument either," Lyssa defended.

"And if I HAD, you would never know I was the one that did it. The fact that he's dead and you caught me shows sloppiness."

"You've been caught before," David shot Regina one more glare, before turning to his daughter, "Come on, Emma. Who do you think's lying, Ruby or her? She's incapable of change, no matter how many times we've given her the chance. Why should this time be any different?"

Lyssa's expression hardened into something Regina knew only occurred when she was very irate over someone else, an expression not even SHE could talk the girl out of expressing her thoughts on, so she sat down as Lyssa stormed out of the room after David and Emma a few moments later.

"…know that you want to believe that Regina can change for Henry, but…" Mary Margaret was saying when Lyssa spotted the two talking to the woman, having been watching the interaction through some sort of magic mirror.

"The old Regina would've reduced this building to ashes," Emma cut in, "That woman in there is a woman who wants to change. She just wants everyone else to see it. I know that look. I know her. I believe her."

"With all due respect, you don't know her like we do," David remarked.

"And none of you know her like I do," Lyssa spoke up, unable to bear keeping silent any longer, making the three heroes spin around.

"I doubt YOU know her either," David huffed, "You go around defending the Evil Queen and…"

"And you go around condemning her, and without proof!" Lyssa stomped her foot, completely furious, "You don't know her! You don't know Regina."

"Regina doesn't exist anymore either," Mary Margaret said quietly, "I'm sorry, I know you want to think the best of your…your 'mother' but…"

"Just like you want to think the best of your father?" Lyssa shook her head at her, "I defend my mother, because _I_ know the truth about her. I was there beside her when EVERYTHING happened. I was there for every decision, ever attack, every challenge she faced, I was beside her, I saw it all. I doubt you even know half of it, Snow White, I wouldn't expect you to even realize what was happening if it was staring you in the face!" which it had, Snow White had had a firsthand look at Regina's descent into unhappiness so deep that it turned her into the Evil Queen, no matter how much Regina had acted around Snow, if she really LOOKED, she would have seen it, noticed it, but she didn't, "You didn't even recognize ME and I was her principle Lady-in-Waiting for three years _before_ the king died!"

"Hold on," Emma held up a hand to cut Lyssa off, "YOU were her SERVANT?" she shook her head, seeming almost disgusted by that, "Regina actually turned her kid into her _servant_? I thought that was Cinderella's story…"

"She didn't turn me into a servant," Lyssa defended, getting so frustrated that they were missing the point. Snow White hadn't even realized she was beside Regina the entire time, the princess barely noticed servants besides her nurse-maid Johanna, so how could she claim to know Regina now? How could she expect to condemn her when she had no idea what Regina was like? Even now, they were ALL jumping to assumptions about her and her position as Lady-in-Waiting, "She did it to protect me."

"How was demeaning you protecting you?" David challenged, "How could that protect you from anything?"

"Because it meant the king could NEVER be alone with me," Lyssa half shouted, only realizing after the words had left her lips that she should NOT have revealed so much.

"What is THAT supposed to mean!?" Mary Margaret demanded, infuriated at the implication in just those few words.

"You see!" Lyssa pointed at her, as though her argument had been proven, using that in a desperate bid to move the argument along and finish it, "You would defend him and you don't even KNOW him! You don't know the truth about him, and you would defend him, unjustly, to the death. I KNOW my mother, I know her better than all of you. And if you knew even a little about her, you would know she didn't murder a cricket!"

Emma shook her head, getting a headache from all the shouting and how ridiculous this all was starting to sound, the Evil Queen's daughter arguing with Snow White about a Cricket, "Look, guys, guys!" she snapped, "We're getting off topic," she shot her mother a look to STAY quiet, despite how much she could see the woman wanted to ask exactly what Lyssa meant in regard to the king, it wasn't the time, not when a man had been murdered, "I know in your kingdom, she was the Evil Queen. But here, she's Regina. And I'm still the Sheriff, and I say she's innocent until proven guilty. So this is what we're going to do, we're going to let Regina go…"

"Emma…" David began, but she shot him a look.

"And then we find the truth," she had listened to Henry when he said he believed with his heart that Regina was TRYING to change. And she realized then, she couldn't just assume the worst in villains, not the way her parents had been doing, Hook had proven that to her as well. She'd assumed he would betray her, because he was a villain...and he hadn't, he wouldn't have. SHE had caused his betrayal in preemptively acting, she wasn't going to make the same mistake, not without actual PROOF that Regina had done this.

"Thank you," Lyssa let out a breath, nodding her thanks to Emma as well, "I know you'll see that she didn't do it."

~8~

"I don't like this world," Lyssa murmured, a faint sniffle in her voice, as she laid across Regina's large couch in her home, on her side, Regina sitting at the end with Lyssa's head resting on her lap, running her fingers soothingly through the girl's hair, "It's changing me."

Regina let out a pained breath at that, "You snapped at two people, dear," she remarked, "That's hardly changing."

"I don't usually though," she murmured, "You always said to have patience. To be understanding of others and their opinions, to be calm and peaceful and not give in to the anger or bitterness or other darker emotions…"

And wouldn't the heroes just have a heart attack to hear that the Evil Queen had given THAT advice to her.

But it was true, she had.

Just because _Regina_ had become the Evil Queen, it did NOT mean she wanted _her daughter_ to follow in the same path.

And she tried to live by that, to look on the brighter side of things, to find the good in others and the light in the dark. At first it had been for her mother's benefit, to give her something to make her days even a little better, but it had grown over the years into her personality. Being here though...it felt like she was angry all the time, any time it wasn't just her mother and her. It was probably because almost everyone in the town, at some point or another, had harmed her mother in some way, and it just made her resentful. She had never been so close to them before, had never been able to be only mere feet away from them and reach out to touch them. She had always been too far away, and now she was surrounded by them, confronted with all the people that had contributed to the hell that was her mother's life...and she didn't know how to handle that.

This was a new experience for her, to be surrounded by others, especially enemies, and have them know exactly who she was and what she was to the Queen.

She wanted to defend her mother, to finally be able to protect her the way Regina always had, but she didn't know how. It all just bubbled to the surface whenever she was around other people. They looked at her mother with such distrust and expectation of villainy that she just got so...so angry! They treated her mother so terribly and disrespectfully and she just wanted to shout at them to stop, to leave her mother alone, that they'd done enough to her through her life. But, at the same time, she knew that most of them had no idea the true magnitude of what they said or thought about her, they didn't understand what she did in the Forest or why. It just confused her and made her feel off balance around them all.

She started snapping at them, finally able to confront them, in some small way, and voice her displeasure with them.

Or at least that was what she hoped it was.

"Sometimes…sometimes others get to us, they say something that bothers us deeply and we can't help it, sometimes they say things they don't even realize will affect us, and sometimes they say it exactly because they know it will," Regina countered, "Do you feel guilty about it?"

"About snapping at Henry," she admitted, implying she wasn't all that sorry for snapping at David or Mary Margaret.

"Well, I wouldn't worry too much about snapping at the Un-Charmings," Regina tried to reassure her, "Chances are they deserved worse."

Lyssa gave a small smile at that, "I just…I feel like everything is different," she admitted, "You've been here for so long, alone, and it was such a short time for me. And the people here…they're worse than I remember…"

"Well, you did spend a year on a pirate ship," Regina squeezed her shoulder playfully, "I think that would make any hero seem twice as bad as they were normally."

"Maybe," Lyssa considered that, "They were very nice pirates though."

"I'm sure they were, dear."

Lyssa was quiet a moment, before pushing herself up to face her mother, her arms locking around her bent knees, resting her chin on her legs to observe her mother, "Mother…there's something I should tell you, about the pirates, about…about their captain…"

"Did he hurt you?" Regina asked, suddenly dead serious, her face set in an expression that promised the worst torture imaginable followed by a long, drawn out death…

"No!" Lyssa's eyes widened, "No, no, not at all. He really did protect me!"

Regina let out a relieved breath, closing her eyes a moment, relaxing her rigid body, "Don't scare me like that, little fox…"

"Sorry, mama," Lyssa had to smile at her mother's reaction, that was very her, "I didn't mean to. I just, I wanted to tell you, I…that I…"

And, of course, the moment she was about to tell her mother she'd fallen in love with a pirate…

There was a pounding on the front door of the manor.

Regina sighed, looking to Lyssa who shrugged and nodded at the door. She reached out to squeeze Lyssa's hand a moment before getting up to go answer it, Lyssa following close behind.

It wasn't entirely a surprise to see Emma, David, and Mary Margaret standing on the other side, they had been expecting some sort of news about Archie and the true murderer, which made Regina smirk, thinking that they had come to say they were sorry for their accusations, "Miss Swan. I assume you're here to apologize."

Emma, however, seemed far from it, "I saw you do it."

"Do what?" Lyssa shook her head, moving to her mother's side, completely befuddled.

"I saw it!" Emma snapped, glaring at Regina, "You choked the life out of Archie!"

"What are you talking about?" this time Regina's reaction was one of complete shock and confusion while Lyssa's was more sedate.

"You…SAW her?" Lyssa frowned at that, not sure how they could when they hadn't seen the trio since the interrogation.

"Magic," David answered, his expression hard, his gaze fixed on Regina.

"I saw what happened, and it was you," Emma accused.

"You used magic…to see mother kill Archie?" Lyssa shook her head again, trying to make sense of that, "How? There are different ways to use magic for visions and not all of them are reliable and…"

"It was Gold," Regina realized, he would be the only other suspect Emma would think to go to, and if HE needed to clear his name, there was every chance in hell that he would use his magic to frame her instead, "He helped you. You're going to trust him, of all people, when he's probably the one behind this?"

"We didn't trust him," Mary Margaret lifted her chin, her expression shouting more 'disappointment' than anger, "That's why Emma used magic instead."

Regina blinked at that, "You can use magic…" she rolled her eyes as the reason hit her, "The Savior. Of course."

Lyssa reached out for her mother's hand, sensing more in her tone than she knew the heroes would pick up on. Henry's entire argument was that he wanted Regina to stop using magic, that he wouldn't ever come back into her life while she used it…but he would be awed and happy that his other mother had magic, that the Savior had magic and could use it if his 'Evil' mother ever let loose again. It was a terrible thing to think, that Henry would be overjoyed Emma could use magic, but condemn Regina for using the very same thing.

"Well, I can only assume he warned you, then," Regina stiffened, clearing her throat so as not to give away her feelings.

"About what?" Emma huffed.

"Magic always comes with a price," Lyssa recited an age old lesson.

"Yeah?" Emma scoffed, casting only a glance at Lyssa, shaking her head at how the girl was STILL standing with Regina despite the evidence they now had, before focusing on Regina once more, "Well, that's a price we're both going to pay."

"How's that?" Regina crossed her arms, having given Lyssa's hand a light squeeze before releasing it.

"Henry," Emma stated, "He believed in you. His heart's going to break. That's both our prices."

"You're going to use your son as a punishment?" Lyssa seemed horrified by that, "As though having him play messenger in a burning room wasn't bad enough? You're going to fill his head with lies about my mother just to…"

"It's not lies," Emma defended, "And once he sees the proof…"

"No," Regina cut in, her expression hard, taking a step towards Emma, "I will NOT let you poison Henry against me!"

Emma almost smirked at that, "It's an interesting word choice, since you already did."

Lyssa's hand flew to her mouth at that, her eyes wide at the low blow Emma had dealt.

And that was a hero? Someone that threw the past back at someone already suffering and dealing with the guilt of it?

She could feel herself shaking in anger at Emma's words, at the condemnation in her tone. They were never ever going to see her mother as anything but a villain, were they? And it infuriated her so badly, because she knew that her mother deeply regretted what happened to Henry, that it was going to haunt her for the rest of her life, the same way her guilt about Cora having harmed HER STILL haunted the woman, and Emma and the others were just…walking away.

No chastisement of what their daughter had said, the deeply hurtful words that the heroes likely thought were deserving.

But NO mother needed to hear something like that, a reminder of their failure in the past, not when they were TRYING so hard to be better!

She nearly called out to them, nearly strode forward to slap Emma herself…when her mother beat her to it.

"I want to see him!" Regina snapped, striding after them down her walkway, "He deserves to hear my side of the story! He's my son!"

"He's not!" Emma raged, spinning around in a righteous fury, "He's _mine_! And, after this, you're not getting anywhere near hi…"

Suddenly Emma was thrown back by a blast of white light, "Don't you DARE talk to my mother like that!" Lyssa shouted, rushing to her mother's side, feeling twice as angry as before at how Emma was speaking.

She may not know much about what adoption was like in this world, but she knew enough from her own that there was FAR more to being a mother than blood. Regina WAS Henry's mother, in every way that counted. She was the one that had soothed his tantrums, had nursed him when he was sick, kissed his pains away when he was hurt, changed him, fed him, cared for him, loved him. When all Emma had done was give the boy away.

And why?

Because she was 18?

Regina had raised a child and become a mother at 18, in a land and during a time where, for her to do it, could mean DEATH to the both of them.

And Emma had given away her own child, and now expected to be called the only mother?

It infuriated her like nothing had in her entire life, to hear someone say that Regina was not a real mother, to hear them threaten to keep her child from her.

And she knew, she KNEW, if she hadn't stepped in when she had, Regina would have reacted. Her mother did NOT do well with people who tried to take away those she loved. She had seen it, first hand, what her mother was like when someone threatened to take her child away. She had lived it, more than once.

"Do it!" Emma shouted, not retaliating to Lyssa's magical shove, but calling out to someone else.

Regina, thankfully, turned in time to see the Blue Fairy, dart out from behind a tree with her wand, firing a blast of blue magic at them both, and caught it, moving to step in front of Lyssa in the process, "Did you really think that would work again?" she nearly sneered at the Charmings, tossing the orb of magic at their feet, "You will NOT keep my son from me," she shook her head, glaring at Blue, the woman running to the Charmings' side, "So much for fairy dust," before turning to look back at Emma as she stood, "Maybe some of your newfound magic can save you now."

"I don't need it," Emma replied, "I already won. There is no way Henry will swallow your lies about Archie. You can pretend all you want, but we know how you are, and who you will always be."

Lyssa frowned at that, reaching out to grab her mother's arm rightly, seeing tears forming in Regina's eyes that she would NEVER let fall, "You know _nothing_," she stated, the firm tone in her voice, the surety in her words, almost giving the heroes pause, "Mother," she turned to Regina, the woman seeming frozen in place, "Away."

Regina swallowed hard but brought her hand up at the whispered command, making them disappear in a swirl of purple magic, Mary Margaret frowning when she managed to catch sight of Lyssa pulling Regina into a tight hug just a split second before the smoke surrounded them entirely.

~8~

Lyssa kept her focus on her mother as they sat in a metal box on wheels that was called a 'car' later that day, paying more attention to her than the scene going on that her mother was so clearly watching in a mirror on the side of the car. She didn't need to look back to know what was happening.

Her mother had been distraught with Emma's accusations and threats, and she knew she couldn't approach Henry like that. But it had taken her too long to calm down and Henry had already gotten out of school…to find Emma and her parents waiting for him.

Her mother had watched as Emma took Henry aside and likely told him what happened…what they THOUGHT had happened at least. But they would never say that, they would say it was real, it was true, they had undeniable proof. And Henry would believe them, he would believe them, his family for all of a week, over the woman that raised him for 10 years. He would believe the heroes over the villains.

She knew, the exact moment Henry gave over to the 'truth' and likely cursed his mother in his mind…because her mother started to cry as she watched.

"It will get better, mama," she murmured, reaching out to place a hand on Regina's back in comfort, the woman trying to be strong and not break down entirely as she watched her son sob in the arms of another mother when he was hurting, as she watched him believe her to be the murderer her stories called her, "I'll find a way to prove to them it wasn't you. I'll find a way to make them see."

Regina was silent at that, her shoulders shuddering from the effort to keep her tears in.

She wanted to hope that the truth would come out, but she had learned enough in her life that it likely wouldn't happen, not for her, not when everyone was so quick to paint her the villain in every situation.

Lyssa though, well, she had to have hope enough for the both of them.

~8~

Hook looked up from where he was sharpening his hook on the docks, his gaze half turned to Storybrooke, almost willing Lyssa to take a stroll along the docks and see him there. He wanted to go to her, to see her, but…as much as he did, he couldn't just part ways with Cora just yet. The woman clearly had a plan that involved Regina, and if he could sniff out what it was, he would have an advantage, he would have something to give her to explain the time between getting to Storybrooke and reuniting with her.

When it came to her mother, the girl would do anything. And if he could find out what Cora's plans were and tell Lyssa them soon, he was sure she would forgive him his tardiness.

"You're back," he remarked, seeing Cora appear in a swirl of blue smoke, "So, did you get what you wanted?"

"Yes," Cora smirked, "My daughter's lost everything she had in this town now."

Hook forced himself to not react to that, knowing it was Cora's way of making him aware that she still had Lyssa…whether she'd have the girl for long, he didn't know, but he couldn't risk reacting to the small threat and giving Cora more reason to go after the girl. He already knew Cora saw Lyssa as leverage, as a tool that had already been effective in getting her daughter to do what she wanted in the past. He wouldn't put it past her to use Lyssa against the both of them if he didn't play his cards right.

And to do that, he had to seem unconcerned with Regina, "Ah. Well, aren't you mum of the year?"

"I did what was needed," Cora defended lightly, not seeming to care what he thought.

"What about what I need?" he stood, growing serious, also trying to redirect the conversation away from Regina and Lyssa, "You promised you'd help me get my revenge on Rumpelstiltskin."

"And I've already started. Or didn't you notice the little gift I left you in the hold of your ship?"

Hook stiffened at that, "A gift? What is it?"

"Not what. Who," she smirked, gesturing towards a blank space beside the dock and leading him up onto it, stepping past an invisible barrier and onto the deck of the ship, the boat now visible to them once they were on it. She continued her gliding pace, leading him into the bottom levels of his boat, to a grate inside a store room, and opening it.

Hook blinked, seeing someone huddled inside it, "Who's that?"

"Someone privy to Storybrooke's deepest secrets," Cora informed him, "Including Rumpelstiltskin's. Someone who can help us determine his weaknesses here…can't you, Dr. Hopper?"

Hook tensed at that, he had heard rumors already, from the small handful of his crew that he had taken with him on this journey, the men he had sent into town, disguised as those from this land in clothing, to hear tell of Lyssa and report back to him. He had heard that Regina had killed a man, this Dr. Hopper that was now bound and gagged in the bottom of his ship…yet very much alive.

And of course he was, because Regina had never met the man at night. She had never laid a hand on him in the last few hours. It had been Cora, using her magic to appear as though she were Regina, making sure she left enough evidence for the town to think it was her and turn on her once again.

It seemed the only one that hadn't, was Lyssa.

"If that's him, then who did you kill?"

Cora shrugged, unconcerned, "How do I know? It's my first day in town."

"You disguised the body to look like him," Hook reasoned, "If death wasn't punishment enough…marvelous work."

"Thank you," Cora smiled, "Now you'll have all the knowledge you'll need. It may take some work, but this cricket will chirp."

"Aye," Hook smirked down at the frightened man, "That he will."

He had quite a few questions for the man…and more than enough time to ask it now that the town thought he was dead.

And if Cora thought he was asking just about Rumpelstiltskin, well…then she would never know if he happened to ask a few questions about another royal 'villain' infamous in this land as well.

If he knew what the Queen's other weaknesses were, then he would know what NOT to tell Cora.

As though he would just give her that advantage, as though he would tell her the truth when he knew she would betray him at the drop of a hat if the situation changed.

Always keep an advantage to yourself, Lyssa had always said, and this one was far too good to hand over to Cora.

A/N: The way the heroes leapt to believing it was Regina, not even considering that there were other magic users in the town (besides Gold) that could have made themselves look like Regina will NOT endear them to Lyssa at all :( Lyssa is thinking in terms of magic having been around and everywhere as she grew older, so her the first thought and suspicion is 'was magic involved in causing this and how?' whereas the heroes haven't been around magic in 28 years and are thinking more in terms of 'was a villain responsible for this and why?' :(

I was SO angry at the Charmings in this episode. How a single argument and a missing file suddenly equated to 'a lot of evidence' to quote their exact words that someone _murdered_ another was beyond me. They were just SO set that it HAD to be Regina, they wanted it to be her so badly, that it really irritated me :( As you can probably tell, assumptions and who makes them and about what are going to come around to bite A LOT of people.

This chapter might seem heavy on the 'the heroes are in the wrong' in terms of the law and how they're reacting to the situation and heavy on the 'Regina as a good mother' thing, that you can argue 'that's NOT why she did something' in the _show_. But this is a _story_ that's going to look at a Regina that's been a mother since she was 18 and how that mentality comes across in the things she's done in the show. I feel like any mother would freak out if they saw their 10 or 11 year old child trying to climb out their second floor window using _bed sheets_, you know? This chapter is also mostly told from Regina and Lyssa's point of view and I think that really affects how they interpret the situation and what's being said, what their thoughts are on the heroes and everything happening ;)

We're going to see a lot of possible thoughts and reasonings for some things Regina's done that may seem evil in the past (and future) but take on a different meaning with the added context of the archetype 'mother' really emphasized. I feel like that quality of her was lost in the writing of OUAT. While in Storybrooke, after she adopted Henry, she was 'mother' not 'evil queen' and she was still 'mother' to Henry when Emma was there, but I think viewers saw her actions and, because of the emphasis on 'villain' and 'evil queen' that Henry and the others put on her, immediately thought the worst about her. But a lot of things that Regina did, I think, if looked at from the view point of 'mother' and 'survivor' (survivor in the sense of she's constantly had everything good in her life taken away from her and didn't let it kill her), it takes on a new meaning and understanding. The heroes and their POV color A LOT of the show, even when we have flashbacks that help us understand the villains, a majority of the show is colored, at first, by the views of heroes and how they see villains as villains.

Regina isn't just a villain, she's a mother too, and I feel like that aspect of her was lost in the early parts of the show and the writers only brought it out here or there instead of exploring it. I mean, in the real world, what would an adoptive mother's reaction to the child throwing a tantrum and running away to bring the birth mother back, and then the birth mother not respecting the law or adoptive mother's wishes for them to leave, be? I don't think it would be good. Add on magic and _years_ of having everything you love and every hope of happiness ripped away from you, I feel like a lot of what Regina did could be explained as a mother reacting to fear and years and years of abuse having her act out the way she did. I'm not justifying what she did, just trying to understand why she acted/reacted how she did. And this story will explore the more mother-side to her ;)

Some notes on reviews...

Cora is definitely a piece of work :( I feel like, if she could crush the heart of the man her own daughter loved in front of her, then she would care even less about crushing the heart of some random servant in front of a child too :( We'll see a lot more of Lyssa and her trying to overcome the trauma from those losses :( I have a flashback coming that just broke my heart to write, because the Lyssa there is SO different from the Lyssa we saw as a child that it almost killed me to write her and to write Regina's interactions with her :'( But I feel like it's needed, trauma like that doesn't just go away overnight :'( Henry, at the moment is a little confused and conflicted about Lyssa. On the one hand, he sees her as a nice person, but she's so defensive and protective of 'the Evil Queen' that he's not sure about her. He also feels a little jealous that she has such a strong relationship with his mother, that she has all these memories of the Enchanted Forrest, but also knows that she likely stood by as Regina went Evil Queen on everyone and is still defending it :( He's not sure what to make of her at the moment, but as he begins to reconcile with Regina, he'll start to see her as a sister-figure to him I think ;) Lyssa and Regina's torture...that will be a very intense chapter }:) As for Gold, Lyssa won't like the fact that he manipulated her mother to be able to find his son, I think she'll empathize with him only slightly, but for the most part, she'll be very wary and frightened of him. I can say Regina went to great lengths to keep Lyssa off Rumpelstiltskin's radar and the few times she was a blip there, she made sure it was only in the sense of him seeing Lyssa as a random servant or her lady-in-waiting ;) So he may know her vaguely, having glimpsed her around the castle, but he won't know how important Lyssa was to her till now ;) I'm glad you're excited for Graham's OC, I can't wait to get to her too :) As for a Loki/OC, I actually already have a series up for that ;) I did a Loki/OC before the Thor/OC, it's called the Seer's Edda series, and the titles are 'Is it Madness?', 'Is it Revenge?', and 'Is it Redemption?' :) I'd say my favorite ships are Swanfire and Outlaw Queen. For writing a Hook/OC, I'm not quite a huge fan of Hook, more so the relationship he has with Emma, it feels a little unhealthy to me. Snowing became boring to me after Series 1, and Rumbelle also strikes me as very unhealthy too, just my opinion on them ;) I feel like we didn't see enough Neal and his POV to understand some things he did, so this story will try to explore his reasons for some events and help him reconnect with Emma now that Hook is less a 'threat' lol :) I do like Harry Potter :) It's funny, I was a Harry/Ginny fan from the very first book...but it all changed when Luna was introduced lol :) Now I find myself a Harry/Luna fan but I also like the idea of Harry with a Slytherin, maybe Daphne Greengrass or someone else that doesn't seem to be around Draco a lot :)

Thank you for the advice, but I'm going to keep the format as it is for flashbacks. It worked well through 4 stories of my other OUAT series, and the pattern is the same here. Episode, flashback, episode, flashback, as stated at the start of the story too ;) The titles, save the last one, follow the episode titles for an episode chapter and a made up title for a flashback to help identify ;) If I ever skip a flashback I always put a note of it to warn not to expect one in the next chapter ;) Also, you can't change the font on this site beyond making the words bold, italics, or underlined, and all of those options would be headache creating to read an entire chapter in lol :)

Lol, I call him Danny in my head now too :) I blame Lyssa :) The same way I blame Piper for being unable to think of Gold as anything but 'Rummy' now also lol :)

I can say there will be a few Regina-Hook moments to come yup ;)

Lyssa will be a little empathetic towards Gold in the sense that he did everything to find his son, the same way she knows Regina would do anything for her children. But at the same time, she'll be very unhappy with how he manipulated her mother to get what he wanted, she'll be frightened of him because he is a very powerful dark sorcerer, and she'll be wary of him because she knows he was the one that put her mother down the path of learning dark magic :( So she'll more side with Hook and Regina in a sense of being untrusting of Gold and fearful of him, but not being openly 'he's evil!' like the heroes are ;)

Lyssa will have many things to reveal to many characters ;) We got a small taste of it here when she lost her temper with the Charmings, but there will definitely be times where she explains more about her life both with the 'Evil' Queen and with 'Queen Regina' and living in Snow's castle around the girl. But eventually Emma, Henry, and David (and Mary Margaret) will know why she dislikes and distrusts Snow so much ;)

Emma will start to try and form her own opinions about the 'villains' yup :) I feel like the Enchanted Forest times were a confusing time for her, being around her mother and having just come from a world where the Evil Queen poisoned her son, she was a bit more black/white about things. But when Hook revealed he wouldn't have betrayed her, I think that was the wake up call she needed to realize she couldn't think like the heroes, so biased, and she needed to be more realistic about things ;) Whether she'll keep that mentality or fall back to the hero-thought later in the story, we'll have to wait and see ;) Gold won't be as outright a jerk as he is in the show, but he won't be above using Lyssa to try and get to Regina either. Lyssa will always be wary of him and fearful of him, having grown up seeing what he was teaching her mother and the person he was trying to turn her into, but she'll understand Belle's stance on him. Though she will, likely, point out the flaws in Belle's defenses. She'll have something Belle won't, which is 18 (and more) years around her mother and having Regina's honesty and trust, so she'll be able to say with certainty things and defenses about Regina that Belle won't for Gold, and she won't mean to be hurtful to Belle, but her words will make Belle realize she needs to KNOW Gold a lot more to understand him the way Lyssa does Regina. Lyssa will help her realize she's going to need Gold's TRUST in order for any sort of relationship to work ;)

Curses are definitely confusing :/ And the OUAT writers seem to just love backtracking and throwing random loopholes into things. Like 'there's NO way to get back to Storybrooke' oh but we could actually just cast the Dark Curse again. And 'if you leave Storybrooke with Marian it will be FOREVER' oh but really it's just 9 weeks because we have this scroll we didn't think about using till it was convenient... :/ I feel like Snow would have also loved her unborn child the most, yet they still used David's heart instead, which I can understand the writers not wanting to go for 'kill the baby' in the sense of actually killing the baby, but still, loopholes :/ I also feel like the wording is weird about that ingredient, 'the heart of the THING you love the most' so I still don't understand why Regina's horse wouldn't have worked if it was meant to be taken literally as a thing you love most, which could be anything with a heart. And if it's meant to be broader, then it could have been the parent you love most, the child you love most, the friend you love most, the spouse, etc :( Like, what if a mother was casting the curse and had more than one child? You can't choose just one to say you love most, you would have to say you love them equally, which would also mean having more than one thing you love most. It's so weird and I feel like OUAT is just getting weirder :/

Oh I CANNOT wait till Maleficent gets into the picture }:D But I agree, expecting Regina to keep a secret when Snow couldn't keep one herself was a little hypocritical :/ I always found it odd the thought that 'kids can't keep secrets' as a justification for why Snow blabbed. I mean, my sister took psychology and had a class about abuse, because she originally wanted to be a social worker, and kids who are abused keep that secret. Really young kids keep it quiet, so do older kids, but even other secrets. Kids CAN keep quiet. If they think they're going to get in trouble, if it's a surprise for someone important to them, if they and a best friend pinky swear not to tell. There are numerous ways and much simpler reasons and deeper secrets that kids can keep, so saying Snow couldn't keep a secret because she was 10 doesn't make sense to me. I know I've kept secrets from when I was a kid younger than that and still haven't told them :/


	12. The Pirate Queen

The Pirate Queen

Lyssa sighed softly to herself as she swept the deck of the Jolly Roger, humming lightly under her breath as she went. The sun was just starting to set and she was starting to get a little worried that Killian and the others hadn't returned from their quest yet. She had been asked to stay behind, to guard the boat, as Smee had smiled to her, but there really wasn't much to guard it from. The land had been ravaged in the year since the Dark Curse started to break and time began to move again, she doubted there were many that would want a pirate ship nor would there be many that would have the skills to man one.

Really, the only other threat to the Jolly Roger was Blackbeard, and he had his own crew and ship so she didn't know why he'd want this one.

Still, she had agreed to stay behind this one time. They often alternated, one or two people staying back on the ship while the others went out to do business, and she hadn't been left alone on the ship for quite some time. It probably WAS her turn to stay back.

The more she thought about it though, the more she started to smile to herself. It was likely half that, half it being her turn, and half Killian trying to protect her. He had…acted slightly different around her, ever since they had admitted they might love each other just about 3 weeks ago. It wasn't anything she thought was outrageously noticeable, but she had seen the crew giving them little looks and secret smiles whenever she glanced at them. She couldn't really understand HOW they would be able to guess that something had changed between their captain and her.

Sure, Hook reserved a seat next to him for her at the small table they ate at, whenever he decided to join his crew for meals that is. And yes, their late night stargazing had become almost entirely talking with a nice amount of kissing instead of actually teaching her more about navigating by the stars…and sure a few of the crew may have wandered past during the switching of duties and watch. Perhaps it was how, the times she would gaze off the side of the ship and he would join her, he would always make sure to stand on her left so that he could place his actual hand on hers on the railing. Though, that being said, she could admit he DID stand closer to her when he was near her than he used to. The last time they'd been on land, going to the refugee camp to trade fish, he had returned with a small basket of apples, something he knew was her favorite food, and given her first pick. But that could have just been him being nice!

She paused in her sweeping, realizing that THAT was probably what had really tipped the crew off.

Even she could admit she'd noticed a large difference between the man she saw before her in recent weeks and the one that had first invited her to stay on with his crew.

He was…softer. Not in an over the top way, he hadn't changed THAT drastically, but he was just a little bit softer around the edges. He was more lenient if a crewmember mucked up than he had been at first. He laughed more at their jokes, he joined them for more meals, he looked less serious and grumpy than he used to, he smiled more. That might be it, really, in the end, him smiling more probably had tipped the crew off. Especially when she considered he smiled more when she was around.

He was still the hardened pirate, for the most part, when others were around even more so, but around the crew, around her, it was almost the barest hint as though he were just a man, a captain, once more instead of a pirate.

She liked to think that the crew was happy with the small changes, that they were happy for their captain finding something to make him smile again after all he'd lost. She knew that the crew were very close to Liam and quite fond of Milah, that they had all been devastated when they'd lost the two, none of them more than Killian had been, but it still affected them. She hoped they were a little happier too, that she managed to brighten up their long days on the sea just like she used to brighten up her mother's long days too.

She noticed something about Killian, now that she thought about it, he did seem to brighten up when she was around, not just in posture or even a quirk of the lips…his eyes seemed brighter, less haunted, when she would speak to him or smile back at him. She'd seen the same look in her mother's eye many a time and it made her happy that she could chase away the bad memories, even for a short while.

She sighed again, turning to sweep what she'd gathered off the side of the ship. She'd gone a bit mad in her waiting for the crew to return and decided to clean. It was a leftover, she was sure, of her past, she was always expected to be doing something when someone else was around, to help 'keep up appearances' as her mother had said. Once someone left, and it was just the two of them again, she could cease what she was doing and do as she pleased. Often she found herself tidying, it was a task that always had no end as there were often numerous things that could be tidied or polished, and it was something that kept her close to her mother. So now, whenever she was alone for long periods, she would clean. Killian had given her free reign to clean whatever she'd like…though he had made her promise not to try to polish the swords.

His reasoning, when he'd said that, made sense. Swords were not meant to be polished spick and span, not when they were meant to be threatening and well used, there was no difference between a dirty sword and a clean one when someone was being stabbed. SHARP swords, now those were useful, but on a ship that swayed as the Jolly Roger did, sharpening swords could be dangerous work and he would rather not have her accidently lose her footing and cut herself while trying to clean or sharpen a sword.

She just thought it was his way of trying to protect her in a small sense. There had been a brief time where they'd had a compromise of sorts, she would teach him one thing and he would teach her something else. She had taught him a simple waltz, just for the fun of having someone to dance with again (oh she loved dancing!), and he had tried to teach her how to use a sword. She knew how to, of course, in a basic sense. Her mother hadn't wanted her to be defenseless, not with the number of threats in the Enchanted Forest, but she had also never wanted her daughter to need to know how to defend herself. Her mother never wanted her to be in a position where she would HAVE to defend herself. She'd assigned a guard to her at all times to protect her, had taught her the very basics of sword fighting, had even had a beautiful small dagger made for her to keep hidden on her and only to be used in the most dire of circumstances…something she still carried with her to this day. But her mother hadn't wanted her to need to fight, hadn't wanted her to be put in harm's way.

An awful lot of the things her mother did was to protect her, she knew, and it seemed to be a sentiment that Killian had taken on too. He'd tried to teach her a little more about sword fighting, till he'd seen her actually trying to use what he'd taught her in practice against Smee, and promptly decided that she didn't need to know because she would always have an entire crew watching out for her, she would always have him or at least one crew member with her at all times to protect her instead.

She had huffed at that, very annoyed that they seemed to think her so weak as to need protection.

But she had to remind herself that none of them, not even Killian, knew she had another talent and means to protect herself if a sword failed or if her protector was hurt.

Once she'd calmed down from that irritation, she'd actually been quite touched. Because none of the crew had objected to their captain's decree to guard her and keep her safe. It warmed her to know that they cared about her. Which was why she was secretly suspicious that her staying back on the boat had a little more to do with than it just being her turn. The fact that ALL the men had gone told her that this trip was going to be especially dangerous and for Killian to insist she stay back…it meant he wanted her safe.

She had been tempted to follow anyway, to trust that the boat would be safe even without anyone on it, but she knew better. They hadn't kept her there just for her own safety, but theirs too. If she followed, if they saw her, if she was hurt or noticed or taken hostage, it would distract all of them and put them in danger. If they knew she was back on the boat and safe, that was one less thing to worry about. It was something her mother had explained to her as well, why she sometimes asked her to stay back and wait for her when she would go out on some trips, because she needed to know her daughter was safe instead of always worrying about her and worrying so much she was distracted or harmed.

And she never ever wanted her mother, the crew, or Killian to be harmed because she had distracted them.

So there she remained, trying to distract herself with menial tasks to occupy her time till they returned, trying to pick tasks that were relatively quiet too so she could hear the men approach as soon as they were near enough and go greet them.

Though, she realized, not even two minutes later, that she had no need to worry about being quiet to hear them when the men returned, shouting and raging and storming onto the deck.

She turned and ran over to them, a smile on her face to greet them with…only for it to fall and her eyes to widen in concern at the state of them, "What happened!?" she cried.

The men looked terrible, bruised and bloodied, some even leaning on others for support, and looking angrier than anything she had ever seen.

"Blackbeard," one of the men, Turely, a rather large brutish man, grunted.

Lyssa gasped, "Blackbeard?"

"Aye," Smee sighed, moving to sit down on a barrel, pulling his red cap off his head with a wince, Lyssa hurrying over to examine a rather bad cut on his head.

She looked to the side, needing to see how bad the injuries were…when her gaze failed to land on the man she was most concerned about, because for the crew to be this bad off, it would only mean HE was worse.

"What happened?" she repeated, a firmer tone in her voice though they could all hear a fear in it, because she had noticed someone missing, "Where's Killian?"

Scourie, one of the other men, older, leaner than the others, but still rather intimidating, glanced around, before stepping forward, "He was taken," he informed her, Starkey taking a step closer to Lyssa's side, as though he expected her to swoon or collapse at the news, "Blackbeard captured him."

"How?" Lyssa breathed, shaking her head, tears in her eyes.

"For us," Ed Teynte, the ship's quartermaster, muttered, unable to look her in the eye, "Blackbeard's men had us surrounded, the Captain gave himself up on the condition we were released."

Lyssa looked away from them at that and they could tell it had nothing to do with them, with her being disappointed in them or anything of the sort, but because they could see her blinking rapidly to try and keep her tears from falling. It didn't help though, the knowledge she wasn't angry with them, it still twisted all their hearts that she was upset at all and to know that they had some sort of small hand in it even if she would never ever say that or believe it.

"We must get him back," she determined, looking back up again, her eyes filled with determination that shown twice as much through the tears.

"We can't."

"Why not!?"

Smee winced at the outrage in her voice, "Captain's orders."

"What?" she rounded on him.

Smee sighed, looking to the men for help, but they all turned away, NONE of them wanted to be the one to have to tell her this particular order, "The captain," he began, "He made us swear, if ever there was a danger to…the crew," he supplied, "If ever he were taken, to get away…"

Lyssa frowned at that, her hands in fists at her side, "It wasn't the crew, was it?" she spoke, her voice so quiet they nearly missed her words, "It was me."

"Aye," Scourie murmured, "Hook made us swear on our honor," what little was left of it that is, "To get you away. To protect you, if ever he couldn't."

"And that just means leaving him?" she shook her head, "I won't do that! He's your captain too," she whispered, "You can't just abandon him."

The men shifted at that, and she knew all of them were deeply uncomfortable with the order they'd been given. But, equally, she knew that they would never break this promise to their captain. He made them swear _on their honor_ to do this, and for this crew in particular, she knew how important their last remaining bit of honor was. They wouldn't break this promise even if they all vehemently disagreed with it.

"We can't just let you be hurt neither," Teynte added.

"I won't be," she defended, "I'm sure I can get him back. I KNOW I can!"

"And what are you gonna do, lass?" Scourie shook his head, "Confront Blackbeard and ask nicely for the captain?"

Lyssa bit her lip at that description, looking down in thought. She knew she couldn't do that, she wasn't stupid, as naïve and sweet as people assumed her to be, she wasn't brainless. She was clever, in her own way, she was strong in others, now she just had to figure out what to do. Whatever that was, she needed to do it, she needed to get Killian back. He was…he was so important to her that the thought of losing him, she just…she couldn't.

This was going to be dangerous, she knew that, Blackbeard was twice as bad in reputation as Captain Hook had ever been. This wasn't going to be easy, any many that could organize a way to get the jump on the crew was not to be underestimated…

She blinked at that word and…hesitated, only a moment, as her mind brought up a plan of action that just might work…a plan that, if she was honest, as she often was, she…she very much did NOT want to do but…if it would get Killian back to her, if it would keep him safe and get him out of Blackbeard's clutches…

She would do it.

She looked up, her jaw set, "No," she told the crew, "That's not what I'm going to do at all," she took a shuddering breath, the men starting to frown at the shaking they could hear in her voice now, "Quite the opposite, in fact."

~8~

Hook grunted as he was shoved to his knees before Blackbeard himself, two of the men's lackies holding him down by the shoulders, his hands bound before him, his hook missing as was every other weapon he'd hidden on his person. He felt like his body was made of lead, his knees would be soundly bruised from the force of this shove, his ribs and abdomen ached from the assault of the surprise attack. He had a cut straight down his arm from a sword, a split lip, a bruised cheek, a nick on his neck, and he knew that his crew had likely sustained worse.

The moment the attack had begun, his men had unfailingly flacked to his side, helping protect him as he was the clear target of the attack.

It hadn't helped. For all their skill, his men had been outnumbered and restrained, threatened, till the first mate of Blackbeard's crew gave his demands. If he went willingly and without struggle, his crew was free to leave. If he fought, if he refused, his crew would be cut down before him and he would STILL be taken to Blackbeard.

He had seen it in their eyes, the desire for him to say no, none of the men wanting to be the reason he was taken by his second greatest enemy. But, equally, he also knew that it wasn't just THEM in danger any longer. Lyssa was back on the boat, she was defenseless without any idea this was happening. And if they were all cut down, it would only be a matter of time before Blackbeard went for the ship. He had made them swear on their honor after the first tavern incident, that they would protect Lyssa no matter what, no matter if his own life was at stake.

He hadn't realized then why he'd been so adamant to have her guarded, he hadn't even realized why his crew had agreed to it, not till weeks, months later. He loved her, he had been very close to loving her and hadn't wanted her hurt. His crew had picked up on that, just as Smee had, though they had been less vocal about it, and…he knew that his crew cared for her as well.

They had to survive, they had to get back to the ship and get Lyssa away, even if it meant leaving him with Blackbeard, he would be content, if he met his end here, knowing she was safe with his crew. He would be outraged and infinitely bitter that his revenge against the Crocodile was going to go unfinished, he would be filled with guilt and disappointment in himself that he had broken a promise to Lyssa to return her to her mother…but knowing she would be safe, it gave him even the smallest sense of peace.

"Blackbeard," Hook spat at the man as the pirate turned around.

"Well, if it isn't Captain Hook," Blackbeard smirked, all too pleased that he had the man at his mercy, "Wonderful of you to grace us with your presence at long last."

"What do you what?" he glared, in no mood for games.

Blackbeard just snorted at that, "I think you know."

Hook shook his head, "You'll not be getting my crew nor my ship," he stated, "Or has your first mate not told you that they were released? They'll be long away by now."

"If you truly think I let them go that easily when I had the advantage, your are not the pirate you claim to be," Blackbeard grinned, "As though I would just LET them walk off?"

Hook tensed at that, but tried to keep Blackbeard from noticing. He hadn't, at all, thought that the man would just let the crew walk away. He had known, though, that his continued resistance would mean a death coming all the sooner to them. He had needed to give them time to get to the boat, to get away, and he had.

"Hardly," Hook sneered, "Never trust a pirate to be anything but dishonest. I knew you would go after my crew."

"And yet you STILL gave yourself up," Blackbeard tsked, "A dangerous move."

"How so?" Hook glared, "My men will away."

"And you'll be dead," Blackbeard stated, "You've been a captain too long," he started to smirk, "You fail to realize…a crew without their captain are useless, they are easy pickings."

"Then it's a good thing they have a captain yet," a voice spoke behind them, actually succeeding in startling Blackbeard and his crew into turning to see a woman standing on the very edge of his boat, holding onto a rope with one hand.

Hook turned, a fierce reprimand on his lips, completely furious that Lyssa (for he knew her voice) would dare come there in what was the most ridiculous rescue attempt he was sure he would ever see…only for it to die before it left his tongue, leaving him openly gaped at the sight.

It was Lyssa, illuminated by the full moon, but it was certainly not HIS Lyssa that stood before him.

Her hair was tied to the side her in a loose, messy plait, draped over her shoulder and hanging just at the side of her bosom…which was quite…noticeable with the corset she was wearing. It was black leather the shirt she was wearing over it, sleeves hanging off her white shoulders, the neckline so low it ghosted the top of the corset, the entire thing so fitted to her he was almost sure she had not been able to get into it herself…which, in the back of his mind, made his blood boil with rage at the thought of one of his crew seeing her dressing. She had a thick black belt wrapped around her petite stomach, with long, black leather pants that were tucked into knee high boots. There was a black pirate hat on her head, tipped ever so slightly to the side, and another belt wrapped around her waist with a pistol on one side and a sword and sheath on the other. It seemed almost like she had torn the sleeves off of one of his black shirts for there were sleeves attached to her arms just above her elbows and flowing to her wrists, her hands bare of gloves, her nails painted black.

But it wasn't just the outfit that had him staring at her, so completely thrown, it was the expression on her face as well.

She was smirking, and not her playful one that she often did when she caught him saying or doing something unbefitting a pirate, or when she was teasing him, it was…dark, threatening, but also smug and very cold.

She looked nothing like the Lyssa he knew, not in dress or expression or even posture.

She looked…like a pirate, no…like a pirate queen.

Lyssa tsked, hopping off the edge of the ship and onto the deck, the heels of her boots clicking against the wood as she landed, "And here I was, hoping for more of a challenge than this," she looked at Blackbeard, unamused, "Your ship is far too easy to breech."

"And who are you?" Blackbeard demanded, his hand moving to rest on his sword, though he didn't pull it yet, seeming not certain what to make of the woman before him.

"Ana," she pulled the hat off her head and gave an exaggerated, mocking bow which also, Hook noticed, gave quite a few men a flash of her chest as she moved down, "At your service," she rose again, the hat back on her head.

"At MY service?" Blackbeard began to grin.

Lyssa's expression grew frosty, "Turn of phrase," she shrugged it off, "More so, it should be YOU who are at MY service for the slight you've committed against me."

"And what slight would that be?" Blackbeard frowned.

"You have seized my first mate and I would…"

"YOUR first mate?" the man scoffed, "Soft in the head, you must be. This is Captain Hook, the captain of the…"

"Jolly Roger," Lyssa cut in, her expression growing dangerously angry, "And I would not have you interrupt me again!" she snapped at the man, seeming to startle him as well as two of his crew behind him at her tone, "If you must know," she turned and walked a few steps to the side, till she was standing nearer to the middle of the deck, Hook not failing to notice how everyone's eyes followed her, "He is no longer the captain of the Jolly Roger, but my first mate. And I would like him returned to me," she spun to face Blackbeard, "_Now_."

"YOU are the captain of the Jolly Roger?" Blackbeard eyed her.

"Yes…" she said slowly, as though speaking to an idiot, "The ship is mine, as is the crew. So you see, this entire ruse to take the Jolly Roger, will fail. Miserably," she sneered the last word.

"And how did that happen?" Blackbeard challenged.

Lyssa rolled her eyes, "You men," she muttered, "You never see a woman coming, do you?" she smirked, "If you must know, I take what I want."

"And you wanted a pirate ship?" he scoffed.

She shook her head, "I wanted a pirate," she corrected, moving over to Hook, running a hand through his hair in a possessive manner, "And once I was done with him?" she hummed as she slid her hand down to his cheek, stroking it just once, "He was all too willing to hand over the reins of his ship to me," she turned to face Blackbeard, giving Hook quite a sight of her backside, "Though," she walked away, moving to observe the crew, seeming to be thinking on something, "It occurs to me, it shall take FAR different methods to see this particular matter settled," she turned to Blackbeard, serious now in a way Hook had never seen her, "You have a score to settle with my first mate you take it up with ME."

Blackbeard snorted, "Your wiles may work on him," he nearly sneered at Hook's direction, "But I shall not fall for charms so easily as to settle THIS matter."

"If you were any sort of intelligent creature," she derided, walking to him with purpose and an aura of power, of authority, "You would realize something quite important about all this."

"And what's that?" he glared at her, standing just inches in front of him now.

She leaned in, whispering, "I don't fancy you," before she did something that surprised Hook to no end.

She shoved her hand forward right into his chest.

And pulled out his beating heart.

"Now," she smirked as the man fell to his knees, "About this matter…" she spun on her heel to face the crew as they all pulled their weapons on her, "Oh, boys, put those away," she mocked, "You might hurt yourselves," and flicked her hand, sending the sword in one man's hand flying off the side of the boat, seeming to startle the others, but not enough to lower their weapons, "Naughty boys," she sighed, holding up Blackbeard's heart and squeezing it till the man fell forward, clutching at his chest, "Drop them. Or you shall find yourselves without a captain and just as useless."

"Do it!" Blackbeard wheezed as she squeezed his heart harder, the men immediately dropping their swords and guns with a clatter.

"Now then," she looked back at Blackbeard, easing her grip on his heart, "I have but two demands, and they SHALL be met, or your heart will be no more than dust on the wind, do you understand me?" she asked the pirate captain.

Blackbeard glared up at her, pushing himself to his feet in an instant and rushing at her.

Lyssa sighed, holding the heart to her lips, "Stop."

He froze in place, looking down at his legs as they refused to move no matter how hard he tried to get them to.

"You really know little about magic, don't you?" she walked up to the man.

"I'll kill you fo…"

"Shut up and listen," she commanded with a sneer, smirking as his mouth snapped shut, "You are going to release my first mate to me…" she stepped back as Blackbeard walked past her, right to Hook, pulling out a dagger and breaking it through the ropes. He grabbed Hook by the arm and hauled him up, shoving him to Lyssa, who reached out her free hand to steady him, moving the heart up to her lips again, "Now…you will take your ship and your crew far into the sea, never again to confront or harm Killian Jones, in _any_ manner…" she smirked, "Or this heart will stop beating forever."

Blackbeard glared at her, realizing she was commanding the heart in a way where, even back in his chest, even out of her hold, it would still obey the order.

"As much…fun…as this has been," she turned, striding to the edge of the ship, a very silent Hook following her, "I should be off, my crew has been without their captain too long, don't you think?" she turned to Hook, holding out her free hand, conjuring his hook into it with a small swirl of white smoke, "Killian, go ahead," she gestured at the plank leading to the docks, "Untie the ship while you're at it," she spun around to face the crew and Blackbeard again, holding the heart to her lips, "Weigh anchor," she whispered to it, "Loose the sails."

"Weigh Anchor!" Blackbeard shouted, "Loose the sails!" he sent her an angry look, before adding, "NOW!" to his crew, sending them rushing on to prepare to depart.

"Good boy," Lyssa took the hat off her head, bowing once more, "An enjoyable experience," she straightened, "Having the infamous Blackbeard _at my service_," she taunted, "But one that I grow tired of," she looked at the heart and back at him, "I do hope you'll remember this moment," she warned him, "Harm me or mine again…" she shook her head, "I won't be so lenient," and tossed the heart to him, knowing he would be distracted enough by trying to catch it that she could run down the plank to where Hook was waiting, grabbing his hand to run up the dock while waving her other behind her to knock the plank to the side, keeping the crew from following as the ship began to sail away.

~8~

Hook hadn't needed to search far to find Lyssa that night, the woman was on deck, near the wheel of the ship, a blanket wrapped around her, her hair down, back in her typical flowing dresses once more, as she stared up at the stars.

The moment they'd gotten back to the ship, she had disappeared into the lower decks, leaving him to call commands to weigh anchor and loose the sails, to get them as far from there and in the opposite direction as Blackbeard as possible. He'd discovered, the crew hadn't been all that far away when Lyssa had gone to Blackbeard's ship. Two had been waiting at the bottom of the plank, waiting for him, turning to run to prepare the ship when they saw him leave and he'd waved them off. As they made for their ship, he'd spotted even more of his men lurking about, close enough to help Lyssa if she shouted, but far enough where Blackbeard's men wouldn't tell it was THEM.

He had tried to find a moment to go after her, to check on her, but his crew was injured and Lyssa's room was the sick room, so he'd had to ensure his men were well and tended to before he could confront her. He'd gone to see her as soon as possible, but she hadn't been in her room. He'd found the outfit from earlier lying crumpled in a pile in the corner of the room, but no sign of Lyssa anywhere till now.

"That was…quite a show," he remarked as he joined her, taking comfort in the fact that she didn't jump when he spoke, that she didn't shy away from him even if she wasn't looking at him at the moment.

He wouldn't lie and say he hadn't been completely thrown by her performance, he honestly hadn't known she had it in her to really be a pirate like she'd been. But she'd surprised him and, oddly enough...it hadn't really been in a good way. He hadn't...liked...what he saw, what she'd done, not when it came from her.

For as much as he teased her about being gentle-hearted and kind...it was HER, the woman he'd seen on that ship...that was someone else.

"Yes," she agreed.

"You have magic," he stated, trying not to sound as though he were accusing her of not telling him that fact.

"Always keep an advantage to yourself," she mumbled, sounding as though recalling a lesson, knowing he would respect that reasoning for her silence on it.

"Wise words," he could agree with that, it was quite a 'pirate' thing to do as well.

"I suppose," she shrugged, "That and…I'm really not very good at it."

"You tore a man's heart out with it," he reminded her, wanting to stab himself with his hook when he saw her flinch at that.

"I wasn't sure that would work," she admitted quietly, "I…I can only do small things, heal some wounds, move some objects, not much. I didn't think I had it in me to…"

"Channel your mother?" he guessed.

"To try to," she whispered, "Didn't quite get it right…"

He reached out a hand to place his on hers, seeing how tightly she was clutching the blanket, her knuckles turning white, her hands shaking. He took her hand and brought it to his lips, "It saved my life," he murmured, pressing a thankful kiss to it.

She turned slightly to look at him, her expression a mix of pain and, oddly enough, surety, "I love you," she told him.

"I…"

"No," she cut in, "I mean…I love you. I do. I KNOW it now. I'm not…uncertain, anymore. I know that I love you Killian. I am certain now that I do."

He nodded lightly at that, "As am I," he admitted, "What happened today…it changed things I thought I knew about love and what it meant to feel it, to be in it…"

"It did?" she breathed, turning her hand to hold his.

"Aye," he nodded, "When I saw you, Lyssa, standing there, dressed like that," he nearly smiled at the pink that flushed across her face at his words, knowing she was embarrassed she'd dressed like that, but it had been needed for the effect and role, "Acting as you did, DOING what you did…" he shook his head, "In that moment, it struck me that, had Milah magic, she would have done exactly that, acted like that, worn something similar…it was almost as though Milah had returned to me," he looked at her, seeing vulnerability in her eyes at why he was saying that, "And I realized…" he paused, struggling to really find the words, knowing this was too important to brush off, too important to him and to her to be left unsaid, "I don't…I don't want Milah. I don't want another Milah. I had one, and she was…indescribable. But I looked at you and…it wasn't YOU," he looked to the ocean a moment and back, trying to put his thoughts into words, "You were everything I thought I wanted, in that moment, a true pirate Queen…and it took that for me to see I don't want that anymore. I didn't want YOU to be that, I just…I just wanted YOU, as you were, as you are," he nodded, "I do love you, Lyssa."

Lyssa smiled at that, knowing it was harder for him to speak of his feelings than it was for her, "Being a pirate Queen isn't easy," she mused, "That leather…" she shook her head, making a face, "How do you move in it so well?" she had to tease, earning a laugh from him.

"Centuries of practice," he joked.

She grew serious as her laughter too died down, "It was hard, Killian," she confessed, "To be a Pirate Queen, to…to act like that, to…to DO that to Blackbeard," he reached his hand up to her cheek, seeing tears gathering in her eyes, "I didn't want to, but…he was dangerous and he had you and he was going to kill you and I couldn't…" she took a shuddering breath, "I just…I needed to save you, and I needed to be…a real pirate to get another pirate to give you back. I thought about what mother would do, what she HAS done when people tried to take me from her, when they threatened me…and I tried to use that, to…to channel mother, to be stronger and braver and…more of a pirate, to get you back," she swallowed hard, "I feel like that must mean something," she looked at him, searching his eyes for an answer as he nodded lightly, "If I could do that, be…be able to act like that, be willing to…to do what I did, to save you, because I needed to save you so badly…to be able to DO it," she nodded as well, "It means I love you, I really do, with all my heart."

She had seen her mother do so much more for the sake of love, if SHE was willing and able to do the same, or close to it, for Killian, it meant the same thing, love.

Hook just smiled and leaned in, pressing a gentle kiss to her lips, feeling a spark swell inside of him, something that told him it really was love they both felt.

And this time, this time he would let nothing and no one take his love from him again.

A/N: So now we know Lyssa, in very very extreme circumstances, has it in her to be like an Evil Queen 2.0 lol :) Not quite on her level, not quite to that level of destruction, and even when she tried to act like it, she still sort of fell short and couldn't really pull it off, but she has potential when dire situations occur at least ;)

I feel like something like this would be what was needed for the two to really KNOW that they love each other, the lengths they are willing to go when the other is in danger and an epiphany about what they really want in life. For Lyssa, she's seen the Evil Queen at her height, and it's so the opposite of how she, herself, normally is, that for her to be willing to go to a place like that, to be able to channel and replicate such a starkly different personality, just to save Killian, I think that would be what really affirms to her that it's love. Because she'll equate a lot of what the Evil Queen has done as being a result of love and going that far for it. For Hook, I think he would need to see Lyssa being everything he thought he wanted, everything he felt like he missed in Milah, to realize that isn't what he wants anymore, that he's changed in the centuries since her death, that he's healed enough to move on and find love again. To see Lyssa being everything he thought he wanted and to realize that's NOT what he wants anymore, that's not what he wants in HER, I think that would be what strikes him that it IS love :)

Though, I can say something in this chapter will come back to bite the characters again later }:)

On a less cryptic note though, lol, I am officially opening the board to any suggestions for a pairing name for Hook and Lyssa :) I've seen some good ones so far, and added them to a list. So if you have any you'd like to suggest, you can drop them in a review or PM me and I'll add them all up. In say, a week, I'll make a poll to put up on my profile with all the suggestions and we can do an official vote for the pairing name ;)

Some notes on reviews...

Lol, you guessed it, Pirate Queen it was ;)

Hook and Lyssa didn't quite reunite in this chapter, the story alternates between the episode and a flashback, we'll have to wait and see for the next chapter ;)

I never got that either, I feel like Henry would have read every story and not just skipped things :/ But the way he didn't recognize Daniel despite him being in the book and with (I believe) a picture too, and how he recognized every other character by picture, that he should have known if he'd read the story :( I feel like he probably just gleamed the gist of the story from other characters' tales and felt like he already knew. But, on the other hand, a part of me almost thinks he didn't read it because he didn't want to see his mother in pain and he knew something had to have happened for her to hold a grudge against Snow like that. It's weird, it's like I feel like he didn't read it because 'she's evil and that's all' but also 'I don't want to know about something that could hurt her that bad' :/ Or maybe he just thought reading it would make him sympathize with her and not try to break the curse. Or he could have not wanted to read it because 'she's evil, there's nothing there that'll change my mind' and things :/ There's so many possibilities but they never explain anything in the show :(

Lyssa will be torn about Gold. She'll understand his motive being getting back to his son, but she will not be happy with how he manipulated her mother and turned her into 'the Evil Queen' just to see his plans through :( I feel like, in the show, a lot of people/characters/viewers forget that Regina had Rumpelstiltskin whispering in her ear and manipulating everything about her life to get her to cast the curse. HE created the Evil Queen, so, in a way, all her dark deeds and the bad things she did as the Evil Queen, stem from him and are technically his fault. But no one ever blames him for his role in it all. Lyssa will, I think, latch onto that a little more than others and bring it up more. Her mother shouldn't be dealt ALL the blame when someone else turned her into the 'monster' they thought she was :(

I think what's tricky about the characters in OUAT is that the writers are trying to say 'they're fairytale characters, of course they're perfect' but at the same time, they want them to be REAL people and have flaws. So when we see them be perfect, we dislike them because it's not realistic. But when we see them with flaws, we dislike them because that's against the fairytale idea :/ I feel like things get frustrating where Regina is concerned because people will always harp on the bad she's done and use that as reasons not to like her, but it's mostly because the show and the heroes harp on it ALL the time and bring it up CONSTANTLY. So what else are viewers supposed to remember but the bad? But if the heroes do wrong and do things that make THEM evil or unfit parents or terrible rulers, people don't say a word about it because it's brushed under the rug and never ever brought up or thrown at them or used against them in the show, so we forget about it :( Like people will say Regina was a horrible mother because of the vines when Henry was escaping the house, but no one ever thinks back to the years and years of abuse that Regina suffered and look at it from an almost realistic sense of, of course she's going to fall back to things that were used on her by her own mother because that's all she knows, they won't see her trying to do better later in the episode and letting Henry leave with David and try to be better, they'll harp on 'how dare she use vines!' :/ We blame Regina more than the heroes because HER sins are the ones constantly brought up over and over again with her good deeds overlooked. It's like the Snow Queen, she said we tend to remember the bad more than the good :( I agree, any apology that has a 'but' thrown into it is never a sincere apology. It makes it seem like a defensive one instead of genuine :( Lyssa will be very sure to tell Snow and others exactly what Leopold was like. If people want to talk about the bad things her mother has done, she will be VERY sure to talk about the bad things Snow's father did ;) There will definitely be an exploration of marriage and true love and Snow's views on it and how what she has now, the idea of true love, comes from the woman she condemned to never be able to be with her true love ;) Oh the Blue Fairy is SO shady! I actually have an original season/story planned for Piper that would explore a little more about the fairies in general for when the show is officially over };)

I have a note in the 5th chapter here and on my tumblr that the DW stories will be resumed in April ;) I'm glad you're excited for them :)

Well we've seen some potential of badassery in Lyssa here ;) So there's hope in the future, probably not on Piper's level, but still more than we see here ;)


	13. The Outsider

The Outsider

Hook glared at Archie as he loomed over the man in question, tied up by the hands to one of the walls, cowering on the ground, but still the man wouldn't talk despite the 'persuasions' he'd utilized. Perhaps the time had come to advance his attempts even more. He reached out his hand, seeming about to strike him and Archie flinched away.

"Wait!" the man cried, "No, please, don't! Wait! Please! Please!"

Hook's jaw tensed as he lowered himself to look into Archie's eyes, "As your patient, the Dark One must've told you all manner of secrets. Where is his dagger?!"

"I don't know anything about a dagger!" Archie insisted.

Hook considered that, eyeing the man critically, "No, you don't, do you? It's his weakness," he agreed with that at least, that was not something the Dark One would just talk about with anyone, but that didn't mean there weren't other things the man might have mentioned that Archie gleamed, "Now, tell me, does he have any others?"

It would be beneficial, he thought, to know what other weaknesses the Dark One might have acquired over the years. He knew that Rumpelstiltskin, or 'Gold' as he was called in this land, knew about his own, about Milah and his revenge, even his crew and ship to a degree. He was determined to keep Lyssa a secret from the man as long as possible, he would NOT give the Dark One any more ammunition to use against him.

It was one reason he hadn't gone to find her yet. He needed to make sure he'd dealt with the Dark One first, he needed to make sure he'd broken the man, weakened him, killed him even, before he would actively search out Lyssa. He didn't want her to get caught in the crossfire and he knew, the moment that the Dark One learned how he felt for the girl, the man would use it against him, he would target Lyssa just to get to him and he would NOT have that. A pirate always protected his treasure.

It was why he was asking for other weaknesses now. If his plan failed and the Dark One became aware of Lyssa before he could see his revenge dealt, he needed to have something else to use against him. He needed to have another weakness that he could use to get the Dark One to back down, to protect Lyssa with. If there was anything at all that the Dark One valued besides his dagger, he needed to know.

He was sure a deal could be struck, as the dagger was his main goal, that he leave that other thing be if the Dark One left Lyssa be. He just needed to know what it was.

Archie, however, wasn't willing to share as he was silent even if he was shaking.

"Very well," Hook grinned, "I've always wanted to dissect a cricket," he leaned in, pressing the tip of his hook to Archie's forehead…

And that was what did it, for Archie begged out, "No! Wait. Wait. Please!"

Hook nearly laughed at that, seeing a change in the man's eyes, knowing he'd finally broken him, "Ah…That's more like it. Now tell me, Cricket, what is his weakness?"

~8~

"Mama," Lyssa's voice spoke quietly from behind Regina as she stood before a large mirror, looking through it at where Henry was lying on his bed in Mary Margaret's apartment, mourning Archie, "You shouldn't."

"I know," Regina swallowed hard, waving her hand so that the image returned to just them, standing in a hidden room of her family's crypt, the entire room completely out of place for it was white and ornate and well lit, exquisite in design and warm.

Lyssa held out a hand for Regina to take, slowly leading her mother to a large bed in the back of the room, sitting her on the edge of it and taking a place beside her, not letting go of her mother's hand, knowing watching Henry upset her, "The truth will come out, mother, I'll make sure of it."

Regina just shook her head, "It'll never happen," she spoke, her voice hoarse, "Henry will never believe that I didn't do it, neither will the Charmings."

"I'll find proof," she insisted, "I'll find proof and…"

Regina scoffed at that, not at her but at the thought of proof, "They'll find a way to discredit it," she shook her head, "All the proof they needed to condemn me was that I had a spat with Archie," she muttered, rubbing her head, "If they're willing to believe I murdered someone on that, no amount of proof will convince them I didn't do it."

Lyssa frowned at hearing her mother sound so defeated, "I'll find a way. There's always hope."

Regina gave her a soft smile for that, for how sure Lyssa sounded.

She had often hated Snow White for how cheerful and optimistic she was, how hopeful she always seemed to be. It was ironic, or she thought most would find it to be so, that she had raised a daughter that was almost twice as bad in those departments. But the difference between the two was, Snow had always had hope, she'd never really had to experience the hardships and trauma that Lyssa had. She hadn't seen her father killed before her eyes, she hadn't had her own heart threatened to be crushed as a mere child, she hadn't lived in constant terror of Cora and the Dark One and Leopold, not like Lyssa had.

She had done her best to make sure Lyssa would still be able to hope and find a light in the dark as she grew older. It had become a mission of sorts for her in raising her daughter. Lyssa had been so different after Cora's attack, she had sworn to get that little girl back to where she had been, to heal her, to restore her faith and hope and belief that good was possible.

The fact that Lyssa could be so hopeful and optimistic now was a testament to how she succeeded and she would never fault or hate her daughter for it. She struggled so long to reach this point and the fact she even could feel that after all she'd endured meant more to her than a petty hate.

It made sense to her, why she despised Snow White's hope and yet appreciated Lyssa's.

And, in the end, she had needed it too. The more effort she put into ensuring Lyssa could still feel hope, she realized, the more she herself had started to lose it. She would rather her daughter be able to hope and smile than she herself could. But Lyssa never stood for that, she always tried to have enough hope and cheer for the two of them, something that helped sustain her during her long years as the Queen and then the Evil Queen. She honestly hadn't realized how little hope she had now till Lyssa had returned, determined to renew her faith in return.

"I just don't understand Henry," Lyssa admitted.

"What?" Regina looked over, shaken from her thoughts by Lyssa's words.

"He's your son," Lyssa said simply, "Shouldn't he, of all people, believe in you first till complete and utter proof was presented to him?"

What had Emma even told him? Had she presented any proof at all? Had she just said 'Jiminy's dead and Regina did it' and Henry believed her just because she was a 'hero?'

"Not all children are like you, little fox."

"But I SAW it all," Lyssa argued, "I was there, in the Forest, and I still know you and love you and trust you. Why doesn't Henry? Why does he still adore Snow White after everything that happened because of her?"

"She's a hero," Regina surmised, not wanting to bring up her concerns about which stories her son might have read in his book, because then she'd have to explain why she thought he hadn't read her own story, and that would mean having to tell Lyssa about Daniel and how he'd returned, why he was gone, and she wasn't ready to do that. She would tell her, one day, but she just couldn't bear talking about Daniel, not after likely losing her son as well, "And heroes can do no wrong."

"But they _can_," Lyssa shook her head, "They do all the time!"

"People just love them more, I suppose."

Lyssa squeezed her hand, "Not as much as I love you, mama."

"Thank you, dear," Regina managed a smile at that, her smile growing more meaningful with her next words, "Thank you for always believing the best in me."

"I know you mama," Lyssa smiled in return, "And I know the truth, as always."

"As only."

Lyssa was quiet a moment, "Do…do you think Henry would feel differently if we…if we DID tell him the truth too?"

For so long it had been just the two of them to know, to understand what happened in the Enchanted Forest, what the Evil Queen was about, all the devastation that the heroes accused her of. It had only been the two of them, and they had always made sure the other knew what was happening. But now…now she wasn't the only child in her mother's life and if Henry was going to turn on her so easily, maybe if he KNEW…

"No," Regina shook her head, "If he doesn't trust me now, after ten years of raising him and loving him, if he could believe I'd do that based on just that so-called proof, and believe it so easily," she swallowed hard, "I want him to trust me as I am. I want him to trust me even more because he thinks so badly of me. I don't want him to change his opinion because he knows what happened in the past. I want him to change his opinion because of the now, because he knows who I am, Regina, not the Evil Queen."

"The people seem to forget that a lot," she mused.

"What?"

"HERE you're Regina," Lyssa looked at her, "Back there you were the Evil Queen. Why does everyone call Snow White 'Mary Margaret' and the Dark One 'Mr. Gold' but YOU are the only one they still call the 'Evil Queen?'"

She could understand calling the woman 'Regina' because it was her name in both places, but it seemed like everyone kept treating each other like they were back in the forest, but calling each other their 'new names,' everyone except her mother. She could understand why SHE kept calling people their other names, she didn't know them much as they were in Storybrooke or what their names were beyond just a handful. And she knew that Regina called them by their old names to help her understand who she was talking about. But it seemed like everyone else just called the woman 'the Evil Queen' and it was frustrating.

"Charming gave the ridiculous speech that they were 'both,'" Regina rolled her eyes, "They don't seem to think I'm a new person and an old person because I had my memories of the Forest."

Lyssa considered that, "Then how did you know about this world and the new things?" she asked, "Like the oven box? Or…or how to be a mayor. Or how to adopt Henry? Or what everyone was supposed to be called? You HAD to have new memories too! To be able to talk to them about past events and not flub on their names and histories. You would have had to have memories. Maybe not as strong as in the Forest, but you had them…"

"I wasn't all that different…"

"You were," Lyssa insisted, "HERE you're Regina, back there you were the Queen. To everyone but me, you were the Queen. Why can't you be Just Regina here? And why does everyone think this is even such a curse?!" she continued, getting up and starting to pace, much to Regina's amusement, recognizing a habit of the girl's from her childhood, "I came here and…and it's wonderful, mother. You have chamber pots in your home that empty themselves. You have little knobs on the walls that make rooms warmer without needing to chop firewood. You have tubs that fill with hot water instantly without spending hours warming the water and it even _rains_ in there! And the boxes on wheels that go without horses and the letrinity."

"Electricity," she corrected automatically.

But Lyssa was on a tangent now, "…and…and there are schools and food is everywhere and women are living their own lives without husbands and…it's wonderful," she looked at her mother, "There are physicians and medicines that work and there are sheriffs that actually keep the laws, or…used to. There's so much here that's better than the Forest, why does everyone think it was so bad here?"

"I don't know," was all Regina could offer.

Looking at it from a fresh perspective, from someone outside the curse coming here and seeing all the modern conveniences, it was a truly wondrous place to live, it had a much higher quality of life. There was less disease, more children were getting educations, women were given more rights and could be in positions of power without men needing to be involved, there was just more…of everything. There was more food, more homes, more space, more wonders of modern technology that they didn't have in the Forest.

For a curse…it was a pretty wonderful place.

"And their memories, even hidden, helped them adapt here," Lyssa continued, pacing even faster, "Even if they couldn't remember their pasts, they did have A past and they could interact and talk and how was it a curse if they didn't KNOW it was curse? How were they suffering if they didn't know they were? A part of them was frozen and woke up 28 years later, so it wasn't like their actual selves were experiencing this life. And if true love is so powerful, then people who loved each other in the past would still come together. And they KNEW it would be broken too. They could have prepared for it and they did in sending Emma away, so they knew it was coming. They didn't try to stop it happening, they tried to stop it lasting, which doesn't make sense to me mama, it really doesn't…" she looked at Regina, "Heroes were all about stopping bad things and breaking curses, so why blame you for casting a curse to begin with if they're so set to think you're a villain? Wouldn't it be 'what you do?' They knew about it, they had months to find a way to stop you casting it, but they built a wardrobe instead?" she shook her head.

Suddenly Lyssa turned and dropped back next to her with a huff, "They only have themselves to blame."

Regina actually let out a small chuckle at that, from the simplest standpoint perhaps, but there was much more going on than that, "I DID cast the curse, and I wasn't the kindest woman to some of them…"

"You cast the curse because Rumpelstiltskin manipulated you into needing to," Lyssa argued, recalling the deal Regina had mentioned to her a long time ago, how Rumpelstiltskin had made a deal with Snow White so that the Evil Queen couldn't hurt her in that land, which meant they needed to go to another land for her to be able to see her revenge actually finished, "He kept pushing you and pushing you and…"

"Hey," Regina cut in, taking her hand, seeing Lyssa getting upset now, "It's alright."

"It's _not_," Lyssa looked at her, tears in her eyes, her voice breaking, "Nothing that happened to you, mama, was 'alright.' He put you through so much, all of them did, but he manipulated everything, he…he turned you into the Evil Queen…"

"You know why I accepted the title," Regina reminded her gently, not wanting her to feel worse.

"I do," Lyssa sniffled, "But…I don't understand why YOU should have to apologize for being this…this monster that people make you out to be, but no one ever expects the ones that made you one to apologize or even take responsibility for it? Rumpelstiltskin, Cora, Snow White, Leopold..."

"I don't know," Regina swallowed hard, squeezing Lyssa's hand, knowing she DID have a point there. Everyone was so set to point fingers at her and call her a monster and evil, but no one would dare say that what she became was a result of outside influence. They were so set to see it as HER fault, not others. Because then it would mean she was a real person that others had done bad things to, that Snow White was just as responsible for all the destruction as the others, including herself.

And that would never happen. None of the heroes would dare say Snow White had any responsibility at all for the reign of the Evil Queen. Heaven forbid even a speck of the blood spilt landed on dear Snow White's hand and people would be lining up with bottles of water to wash it off and reassure her that it wasn't, in any way, shape, or form, her fault but the Queen's alone.

Lyssa turned to rest her head on her mother's shoulder, "It's not fair."

"No, it's not," Regina agreed.

"I still believe in you mama, I trust you," she murmured after a long moment of silence, "I always will. Even if Henry won't."

~8~

Lyssa hesitated as she stood across the street from what she thought might be Snow White, no, here it was Mary Margaret's apartment. She recognized the building from the magic mirror when Regina had been watching the goings on of the funeral reception for the cricket man. She was currently debating whether she should go in and knock on their door to ask to speak to Henry or if she should just go back to the crypt and her mother.

Despite telling her mother not to watch Henry in mourning, knowing it would make her twice as sad as normal, she knew her mother couldn't resist. It was the only way she'd be able to see her son what with the threats Emma had laid down on her, despite Regina still being his legal guardian in this world. She doubted the law of this town would do anything about that crime what with the law being Emma and committing the crime in the first place. Still, she had tried to keep her mother's spirits up, but after she'd seen Henry crying quietly to himself, none of the other adults nearby seeming to notice, she'd just wanted to lie down and rest.

Her mother never lied down in the middle of the day, not even when she was ill. She knew what it meant though, it meant her mother desperately wanted to be alone to cry. She could remember only a handful of times in her entire life that she'd seen her mother cry, mostly when she was younger. She could see it now, in hindsight, the older she got, the more numb and full of despair at the life she was living under Leopold's rule, her mother cried less and less. The times where she really did need to cry, and deeply so, she would remark that she just needed to lie down and rest, and withdraw to her rooms. She would always go to check on her, as was her duty as Lady-in-Waiting, and would stop when she heard her mother trying to cry quietly from the other side of the door.

She had entered only once, the first time it happened, alarmed and wanting to help her mother. But Regina had put on a smile the rest of the day and she couldn't bear her mother trying to appear happy when she just needed a moment alone to let it out. So she refrained from going inside after that.

It didn't stop her from sitting outside the door and waiting till the sobs subsided to enter though.

She knew her mother wanted to cry about what was happening with Henry, but that she didn't want HER to see it, so she'd let her mother rest, saying she was just going to explore a little, the crypt, the cemetery around it…if she left out exploring into town to speak to Henry, well, she just hadn't finished her list yet.

She bit her lip, looking around to see if anyone was lurking about, but it seemed pretty empty. She doubted the reception was still going on, it hadn't seemed like anyone was around besides Emma and her parents when Regina looked last, so she wasn't likely to be stopped…but she still hesitated. She didn't even know what she was going to say, who she would really say it to, she had some choice words reserved for the Charmings, but she also felt like she needed to really talk to Henry…though she doubted they'd let her since she was 'the Evil Queen's daughter' now.

She could understand better why her mother kept it a secret in the forest, she could go more places and speak to more people when they thought she was just a servant instead of someone as close as she was to the woman.

She looked over when she heard a barking noise to see Henry being pulled out of the apartment by a Dalmatian, shouting, "Pongo! Pongo, slow down buddy!"

Lyssa took a breath, looking up and down the street for signs of the wheeled boxes her mother called 'cars' just as she had been instructed to do, and crossed quickly, "Henry!" she called, steeling herself for this, not willing to back down now.

The reaction she got was not what she expected.

Henry instantly spun around, moving behind Pongo and putting his hands up not even defensively, but with his fists up, as though expecting a fight, "What do you want!?" he shouted, seeming to be talking louder than necessary, likely to draw attention to him or get someone running out of the building to check on him, "Go away! I'm not going with you!"

Lyssa frowned, "I didn't ask you to," she stated, "Why would you assume…" she sighed, of COURSE he would assume, heroes did that all the time, "I just wanted to talk."

"Yeah, right," Henry glared at her, "You came to drag me back to Regina," she frowned at how he called his mother by her first name, "Well I'm NOT going without a fight," he lifted his fists more.

"Nor would I fight you," Lyssa shook her head, "Henry, I just wanted to talk," she held her hands up slowly, in surrender, "I just wanted to say something to you and then I'll go."

Henry hesitated at that, eyeing her suspiciously, "Really?"

She nodded, "I just…" she cut off and looked down when she felt something nudge her knee, "Oh, hello," she smiled, kneeling down to pet the dog that had pranced over to her and was sniffing her.

"Pongo, what are you doing?" Henry hissed at the dog, "She's the enemy!"

"He doesn't seem to think so," Lyssa remarked, happily petting the dog as it sat down, enjoying the attention, "Which should tell you that mother didn't do it."

Henry's eyes narrowed, suspicious again though his fists lowered, "You're here to try and convince me she's innocent, aren't you?" he shook his head, "It won't work, I KNOW she did it!"

"How?"

"What?'

"How do you know?" she argued, "Did you see it?"

"Emma did."

"With magic," Lyssa replied, "Magic taught to her by the Dark One," she raised an eyebrow, "I would think you'd trust magic taught by the fairies more than by him," she shrugged, seeing him frown, genuinely thinking that, "But magic is tricky, especially when you're just learning and, Emma is NO prodigy," she laughed as Pongo began to lick her face, "She could have seen what she wanted to see. Or it could have been something charmed to show her an illusion. Or…"

"Emma wouldn't do that," Henry defended.

"You're so quick to defend her," Lyssa frowned.

"She's a hero, Regina's a villain."

"Why do you do that?" Lyssa eyed him.

"Do what?"

"Call her Regina. She's your mother, she deserves…"

"She is NOT my mom!" Henry snapped.

"She adopted you, she adopted me, she's MY mother, so…"

"She's not our real mom."

"She is to me," Lyssa stood up, though Pongo moved to her hand was still scratching his head, "But that's not what I'm here to say, Henry…what's this dog's name?"

"Pongo," Henry answered after a moment.

"Dogs in the Enchanted Forest always had very good smell, do they here?" he nodded, "Well, he must smell mother on me…and he's not running away or attacking me," she pointed out, "So he's not scared of her, which, if someone saw another person murdered, they'd be a little more scared. Animal or not, right?"

"I…guess…" Henry admitted slowly, still frowning.

"Anyway," she shook her head, "I just wanted to say…mother didn't do it. I don't know what Emma told you, Henry," she held up a hand to keep him from speaking, "I wanted to let you know, Mother WAS with me all night. We stayed up to talk about a lot of things, mostly you," she offered him a small smile, "But she was with me."

"You're lying," Henry accused.

"I said the same to Emma," Lyssa replied, "And she didn't seem to think so."

Henry was silent at that, his expression clearly telling her that no, Emma had not told him much of anything about Regina's defense against the murder.

"And for her to be with me all night, that would mean I was there when Archie died, and Emma would have seen that, but she came after mother, not me," Lyssa frowned, "And, speaking of visions and magic, magic CAN make people look like someone else…"

"Are you trying to say Emma…"

"No!" Lyssa's eyes widened, surprised by how quickly he leapt to Emma's defense without even an accusation against her, yet when someone gave a rather stupid argument for why Regina killed someone he believed it, why couldn't he feel that way for their mother? She shook her head, "I meant, there's other people in the town that have magic, right? The Dark One, the Fairies, even an object could be used to cast an illusion, to make even someone without magic look like someone else. It COULD be possible that someone disguised themselves as mother to make it look like she did it."

"No one would do that," Henry shook his head, conveniently forgetting how there had been cases of framing in Storybrooke before, and against a 'beloved' citizen instead of one despised and that people would WANT to see suffer.

Lyssa felt herself frown at that, at how he was willing to believe every single person in the town, including the Dark One apparently, wouldn't do something like that…yet he was so willing to believe his adoptive mother murdered a cricket, "That grumpy beard man was ready to stab her only a few nights ago," she reminded him, "This town doesn't exactly like mother…"

"They don't have a reason to," Henry continued to defend, "And right now, I don't like you either."

"Why not?" Lyssa seemed confused.

"Because you're trying to confuse me!" Henry shouted, "Regina is the Evil Queen. She killed my friend. And that's what happened. My real mom, and my grandparents, found evidence, they SAW her do it! And now you're trying to _defend_ her?" he shook his head, sounding almost disgusted, "Well you're not going to change my mind. Good always wins, and villains always lose, and that's what happened. The heroes won and a villain's plan was thwarted."

Lyssa seemed incredibly sad by his words, "The world isn't that back and white Henry," she told him sadly, "And one day, when you see that, I hope you apologize to mother for all this. You would be the first to do it, you know," she murmured the last part, "No one's ever _really_ apologized for what they did to her."

Henry frowned at that, stepping back when Lyssa walked past him, needing to reach out and grab Pongo by the collar so he wouldn't follow the girl, "Come on, boy," he tugged Pongo back, "Let's get you inside, have Emma check on you for enchantments."

Lyssa heard those last words and closed her eyes in sorrow at how Henry just assumed she had to have enchanted a dog to get him to like her, instead of considering that Pongo had no reason NOT to, because neither she nor Regina were involved in what happened to the cricket.

She opened her eyes, blinking back the tears in them, she had tried…she had tried to get through to Henry, to make him consider the other options, to appeal to him, to what he KNEW about his mother, not the Evil Queen, but Regina...and she failed.

She swallowed, she would just have to try harder next time, because her mother was counting on her and there were only two people in the world she would do her best to never let down, and her mother was one.

~8~

Emma hesitated as she entered Mary Margaret's apartment a few hours later to see Henry at a table, drawing furiously, while Pongo rested at his feet. She glanced around, seeing the room was empty and headed over to him. He seemed to be in better spirits since she'd brought Pongo over and offered to let him keep the dog, to take care of him now that Archie couldn't. This was the first she'd seen him out of his makeshift room since before the funeral.

"You plotting your escape from Shawshank, kid?" she joked, noticing he seemed to be drawing boxes with labels in them.

"No," Henry shook his head, sounding far too serious, "They're blueprints. I had some ideas for what to do if David and Mary Margaret move out. Look."

Emma nodded slowly at that, thinking of how, after she'd brought Pongo in, Mary Margaret had mentioned moving out with David, or moving them all into a bigger house, "You want to make Mary Margaret's room an armory?" she frowned at that.

"Yeah," he shrugged, pausing in his drawing, "You know, for weapons and stuff. To protect us," he grew quiet, almost sounding scared, "From Regina."

Emma shook her head, serious, "She's _not_ going to hurt you. I'm not going to let her."

"She hurt Archie!" Henry reminded her, looking up at her, both angry and frightened of his adoptive mother, "What if she wants to take me back?"

"That's not going to happen," Emma tried to reassure him, when there was a sudden knock on the door that caused Pongo to leap up and rush towards it, scratching at it frantically, "Pongo? What is it?" she hurried to the door and threw it open, gaping at the man standing on the other side, "Archie!?"

"Um, hi?" Archie tried to smile, but it was clear he'd been through a trying experience, his face was pale, he was out of breath, sweating, and looked bruised in some places.

"What happened?"

"It was Cora," Archie quickly got to the point, "She kidnapped me."

"A…Archie?" Henry breathed, stunned, having come over to see who his mother was talking to.

"Henry," Archie grunted a moment later when Henry launched himself at his legs, hugging him around the middle, "Oh, it's alright. I'm fine. I'm fine."

"Henry…" Emma breathed, her eyes wide, her mouth hanging open as the impact of what Archie said reached her, the absolute horror at how far off they had all been and how they'd reacted, how they'd treated Regina, how they'd threatened her, all of it coming back to her, "We were wrong," she looked at the boy, "Regina _didn't_ do it."

"Lyssa was right," Henry murmured.

"What?" Emma looked at him, "When did you speak to her?!"

"Does it matter?" Henry looked genuinely upset, "She was trying to say mom was innocent, that someone else with magic could have framed her. And I didn't listen. I told her she was lying."

"We all did," Emma rubbed her forehead, Lyssa HAD been adamant that Regina was innocent, but none of them had listened, and that made it all the worse…because Regina herself had proclaimed her innocence and no one had listened, no one had dug deeper. When Mary Margaret had been framed, she had stopped at nothing, even when evidence after evidence piled up saying Mary Margaret did it, she hadn't stopped looking for something that said otherwise.

But she hadn't done the same for Regina. She'd let her emotions blind her, in both cases really. She had been so sure Mary Margaret was innocent and even with her starting out thinking Regina was too, she hadn't pushed as much, she hadn't believed it as deeply. As the sheriff, her first and foremost method should have been objectivity, distance, treating it like it was a stranger and doing what she would for any other person.

Innocent until proven guilty, even when Mary Margaret had been 'proven' guilty, she still had fought for her innocence. But she hadn't here. And she knew all Regina would see it as was her defending a hero and thinking the worst of a villain. She needed to stop doing that, she had sworn she wouldn't do that. And she had managed to keep that factor out of it, the hero or villain title, for all of a few days before she'd just leapt onto the 'Evil Queen' bandwagon her parents were leading.

It wasn't fair and it wasn't right and now…not it might be too late to make amends. Like with when she betrayed Hook. How many times was she going to make this mistake before she really learned? How many times was she going to promise herself she wouldn't do something only to do it without thinking days later? It had to stop.

"Maybe we should let her know?" Henry looked at the adults hesitantly.

"Yeah," she winced, "But something tells me, either way, we're going to pay the price. None of us believed her, except Lyssa," she sighed, trying not to look at Henry for that, trying not to add on that the 'us' also included him, knowing that having your own family not trust you was worse than anything else, "She's not going to let that go easily."

And, for some reason, she couldn't help but think neither would Lyssa.

~8~

Hook smirked as he came to the townline that night. His plans had gone…well, not perfectly, but better than he had thought they would.

It hadn't taken much to get the cricket to chirp about how the Dark One was on a mission to find his son again, nor to learn that the man owned an antique shop in town, complete with a safe that he kept his most precious belongings in. All he'd had to do was work out how to get the Dark One to leave the shop long enough for him to steal whatever might be precious from within.

Smee had had the excellent luck of speaking to a rather drunk man in the local bar who was trying to drink himself into a stupor over having helped the Dark One just a short while ago. The man, a Dr. Whale, had lamented to Smee that he'd helped one of the men in town send a woman, Belle, over the townline so she would forget about her love for Mr. Gold, the Dark One's name in this land. The Dark One hadn't been pleased and had used him as a means of testing a potion that would allow him to cross the townline and retain his memories. He had nearly lost his own in the process, but Gold's potion had worked on a trinket that belonged to his brother and the Dark One was ready to leave town fairly soon after.

Smee had reported all of that back to him which he'd been quite pleased about. Because now he knew exactly what to steal from the Dark One and another weakness of his to use against him or to protect Lyssa with.

The Dark One loved Belle.

Oh, he knew the princess from the Forest, had tried to 'rescue' her and get her to help him defeat the Dark One, but she refused…because she loved him. But now he knew that the imp loved her in return, it gave him leverage over the man.

He could spin a deal that their lady loves were off the table, so to speak. That he would not harm Belle if Rumpelstiltskin would not harm Lyssa.

All he had to do, was make Gold aware that he COULD harm Belle, and the opportune moment had come across easily. Belle worked at a library, all he'd had to do was corner her there, threaten her, and she was calling for the Dark One's help, distracting the man, luring him out of his shop in a haste, just long enough for Smee to break in and steal a shawl of Baelfire's, the Dark One's son.

After that, it was a matter of time before the Dark One would confront him over it.

He hadn't been expecting Belle to go sneaking about his ship and release the cricket, though that was likely for the best. He had learned all he would from the man about the Dark One and his weaknesses. And he knew Cora would have had him set on learning more about Regina's next if the cricket remained. Now it was off his hands, the man had escaped and it was just beyond his control to prevent it.

The intense beating dealt to him by the Dark One when he went after Belle for trying to take the shawl back, that would only add credence to his story.

Even that had been worth it. Before the Dark One had even gotten there, he had been able to reveal his true soul to Belle. The woman had been so concerned about the shawl he'd taken and how it would help Rumpelstiltskin find his son again, that she'd been willing to just stand there, with his gun pointed at her, till she got it back. It left him with ample time to explain how Baelfire fled his father, just like Milah had. It appeared the Dark One had told Belle that HE had stolen Milah away, which he quickly corrected, telling her Milah had all but begged him to take her from her life…and how Rumpelstiltskin had killed her by crushing her heart in front of him as a result. No sob story about how Milah had tragically died as Belle seemed to be under the impression of, but the truth.

He would have scoffed at Belle's utter faith in the Dark One changing, her claims that there was still good in him, had it not been for Lyssa. He knew his love had the same faith in him, but he also knew that he had to have SHOWN her something for her to believe it. Lyssa was a gentle woman, but she was not, by any means, stupid. She was hard and very slow to trust. It had taken him a year to gain hers and he knew, in that time, he had to have revealed something of himself, his true self, for her to see good in him as well.

He wouldn't lie and say he hadn't changed in small ways, that he wasn't actively trying to be a better man, a man that deserved her, and that was proof to him. HE had good in him, buried under the darkness, but the Dark One? He would never change. He loved power too much to give it up. Lyssa had shown him, however, that once his revenge had passed, that there were other things he cared about besides it. He cared about his ship, even his crew, he cared about Lyssa, he might even say that, at times, when Lyssa had been in the gravest danger, he might be willing to bargain up his revenge, to relinquish it, if she would pull through. Thankfully nothing had come up that serious to require his bargain, but he could feel it stir in him at times.

He would have thought that Belle watching as the Dark One beat him to within an inch of his life would be proof enough to the woman that Rumpelstiltskin did NOT have good in his heart, like she believed, but the woman seemed determined to think that way. He didn't understand it. He knew that Lyssa, when she believed in you, would believe with her whole heart, but she wasn't blinded by things the way Belle seemed to be. There was a difference between wanting something to be so and whether it actually was. Belle seemed stuck on wanting to believe the Dark One was good, even after the man repeatedly ignored her cries to stop, ignored her pleas not to kill him, nearly about to rip his heart out and crush it till he held back at the bitter end.

He had tried to egg the man on, to prove that he wasn't changing, had nearly ordered him to rip his heart out, to kill him as he had Milah, he may have even gone so far as to claim it would reunite him with her. It was true, in a sense, he would be reunited in the afterlife…but he had no intention of leaving Lyssa. He'd said the last part only to ensure that the Dark One didn't realize he'd moved on. If Rumpelstiltskin still believed he was hung up on Milah, then he wouldn't think to use Lyssa. If the Dark One still thought Milah was his weakness, he would never know that it wasn't harming or damaging him or weakening him the way he intended.

As Lyssa had once remarked, always keep an advantage to yourself, and Lyssa was his.

Rumpelstiltskin hadn't quite ripped his heart out, but moved to strangle him instead. He was almost certain that the man had only released him with the order to sail away because Belle's shouting and begging him to stop was getting irritating. The girl was just standing there shouting at them instead of doing anything to actually help the situation one way or the other. It was irritating HIM and he was having the life choked out of him.

Whatever it was, whatever reason the Dark One let up on him, he was grateful, because it meant NOW he could see his revenge through. The shawl had been taken by the Dark One, but leaving the town would mean that Belle would be defenseless.

He needed Rumpelstiltskin to see that Belle was in danger, the more danger she was in, the greater a threat HE was to the girl…the more desperate the Dark One would be to make a deal to keep her safe. Keeping Belle safe meant Lyssa would be safe as well. He was sure he could word it that a person of his choice not be harmed without saying it till the truth came out. But for that to happen, he needed to strike at Belle and make it count, make it hurt, make the Dark One realize that for as immortal and invincible as he might be because of that bloody dagger, his lady love wasn't.

Not only would it make Rumpelstiltskin vulnerable to a deal, it would hurt the man as well to have his love targeted because of her association to him. It would make them even when it came to Lyssa and protecting her as well.

And that was why he was standing there, at the edge of the town, lurking just at the end of the woods, watching as Rumpelstiltskin and Belle stood at the townline, using the potion on the shawl which allowed the man to step over the line. He just had to wait, just a little longer, because if Belle was anything like Lyssa, she would be overjoyed their plan worked and distract the Dark One just long enough for him to make a move.

He smirked darkly when Belle leaned forward to hug the Dark One and took his chance, stepping out from the woods and lifting his pistol, firing at them from behind. The force of the shot striking Belle sent her stumbling over the townline, a shimmer of magic wafting over her as she fell to her knees, the Dark One struggling to hold her, shouting her name.

"Who's Belle?" was the girl's only reply as she looked at Rumpelstiltskin in confusion.

"Oh, no," the man realized, shaking his head in horror, Belle hadn't been wearing an enchanted token to help her keep her memories, "No, no, no, no…"

"Oh, fear not," Hook called out, lowering his pistol, "She'll live. She'll just have no idea who you are."

The Dark One stood, turning to snarl at the pirate, "What you've done cannot be undone!"

"Well, now you finally know how it feels!" Hook glared, "Well, go ahead, crocodile," he held out his arms, "Do your worst!" he baited, a part of him knowing that, no matter what, the man wouldn't actually attack to kill, not with a confused Belle there. The LAST thing the man would want is to terrify her and frighten her away from him by murdering someone in front of her.

"Oh, I intend to," Rumpelstiltskin snarled, stepping across the line and conjuring a fireball to his hand, just about to throw it…when he heard a screeching of brakes behind him.

He spun around to see a car careening towards him and quickly grabbed Belle, rolling them out of the way despite her cry of pain from the bullet wound in her shoulder.

Hook, however, was too slow in moving out of its path as it suddenly veered towards him, hitting him and knocking him back, knocking him out…leaving him at the mercy of the Dark One.

A/N: I'm very sorry the story wasn't up on Thursday as it was meant to be :( At first a coworker called out sick on Wednesday and I had to go in early, so my Flashover chapter wasn't finished being edited and I didn't get home till late, so I tried to get it done Thursday along with this chapter, but another coworker called out and I had to fill in for their whole shift which threw off my editing as well. I was set to work on Friday though and it was just an insane few days lol. I made some extra money in taking on more shifts, but it took away from my editing time :( I can say though that we'll be getting an extra chapter at some point this month to make up for the missed update ;) I have work today too (the woes of needing money lol) but I'm going to try and get Flashover edited and up today too. If I can't get it up by tonight, I may hold off till Wednesday and update it then since it would only be a few days away ;) I really wanted to get this story updated more than Flashover (after I missed both updates) because this one is what I need to finish to get to Lord of the Rings and Flashover is a sort of side-story that doesn't really impact my updating schedules much ;)

For this chapter, I couldn't see Lyssa standing by and not saying something to Henry about Regina not doing it :( It really bothered me how Emma seemed to be subtly encouraging Henry to fear Regina and resent her. Like Regina wouldn't knowingly or willingly or purposefully_ hurt_ Henry, and I think Emma knows that. It bothered me how, when Henry was worried Regina would come for him and Emma seemed to take it as a fear that Regina would hurt him also, she didn't say 'She won't hurt you, because she loves you' but instead that Regina wouldn't hurt Henry because 'I'll protect you' which implies she believes and feels Henry should believe Regina would actually physically hurt him if Emma wasn't there to keep him safe :'(

I feel like a lot of Lyssa's resentment over how people are treating Regina and how she views the curse, come from an outsider's POV but also someone that is so close to Regina that she knows things others don't. So when people go off on how she's the 'Evil Queen' and shouldn't be trusted and how 'she ruined our lives' all Lyssa can think is, it's her mother, no one but maybe Snow White (and even then that's a stretch) actually understand or know what she went through that MADE her that way, SHE knows and she can't tell anyone what she does know, because half the time they wouldn't believe her :( I think she feels like people are getting too comfortable just blaming everything on Regina and it's upsetting to her to see :( A lot of what Regina does, in the Forest and Storybrooke, are focused around her children in this story. So, where in the Forest, Regina would not stand for these sorts of attacks against her, in Storybrooke, she has Henry to think of and has to hold back, even if Lyssa can see it hurts her to do it :(

I was tempted to have Hook and Lyssa reunite in this chapter, but I felt like Lyssa wouldn't be able to leave her mother for too long, not with how devastated Regina was over the situation, and Hook would want to settle his revenge against the Dark One first, to make sure that problem was dealt with and no harm would come to Lyssa before that. I think he'd want to try and deal with Gold first before Gold could learn how important Lyssa was to him and use her against him. And also, he'd want to find out ALL Gold's weaknesses to work with if Lyssa was discovered, like a bargain, Belle for Lyssa, no harm to one if the other remained unharmed. He and Regina have that in common at least, they both want her safe and protected :)

That's also why a lot of Hook's scenes were summarized at the start and end with more of a focus on Lyssa. What Hook does wouldn't be different than in the show, because his plan would still be the same, there would just be a slight change into why he did some things or why he said some things. So it didn't make sense to me to write out the entire scene all over again when it was exact to the show with no real added thoughts to Lyssa till the end and beginning ;)

One last note, I am LOVING all the pairing names! :D I think I'll post the poll for the names on the 20th so right up to the end of the 19th, if you have a pairing name feel free to drop a review for it ;)

Some notes on reviews...

I actually had a note in chapter 5 and my tumblr that BBT will be updated after I finish this story and my Lord of the Rings story, so May 15th ;)

I'm glad you liked the twist on the Milah memory :) I feel like seeing everything he thought he wanted, because it was everything Milah was, would help him see that, in the year he's been with Lyssa, he's fallen for HER and he just wants her, not another Milah :)

Aww thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying my writing :D I'm sorry it was a little more than 2 days though, hopefully now that the weather's getting warmer there'll be less colds going around throwing me off lol :)


	14. Different Forms

Different Forms

To say Captain Killian Jones, now known by his more colorful moniker of 'Captain Hook,' was pleased and having a good night…would be the second greatest understatement of his life. The first being that he'd only been a little angry when his love, Milah, had her heart crushed in front of him. He honestly could not remember a time where he hurt quite so much as right now as he sat in his quarters on the Jolly Roger at night. Not a feeling of being hurt on the inside, though he was sure some of his own organs had certainly taken a beating, but on the outside. Had the loss of his hand even hurt this much? It was so long ago he couldn't remember it clearly any longer.

He really didn't even know how it had all happened, the tavern brawl that had led to him being more injured than he was sure he had ever been in the past.

Well, that wasn't entirely true, he DID know, he did remember how it started and how it occurred and how it ended. Badly for him, yes, worse for the other man.

That was enough to have him crack a smile despite his pain, thinking about how the other man that he'd fought with had fared.

He might have a dotting of bruises covering his ribs, his arm might feel stiff to the point where he wasn't sure if he'd be able to move it ever again, his shoulder ached something powerful, and his face felt like a big blob of tenderness and blood and it wouldn't be that far off. He had gotten hit quite soundly in the face, surely blackening his eye, and another blow to the mouth, splitting his lip. There was a cut on his forehead from a broken bottle, a cut on his neck, though not deep, from a knife that got too close. The front of his shirt was slashed at, thankfully not having managed to actually cut his skin as he'd jumped back. He knew he had a line of bruises down his back as well, he'd hit a beam running up the wall hard from a kick to the chest and his hands hurt to unclench and flex from the bruises spotted along them too. His clothing and jacket might be bloodstained but it wasn't his own blood at that.

He might be that brutalized, but the other men that had ganged up on him till his crew realized and jumped into help, they were dead.

So, all in all, he was pleased with his condition in the sense that he was still around to man his crew, sail his ship, protect Lyssa, and seek his revenge.

He paused at that, straightening as he realized where his thoughts had gone.

It wasn't the first time that Lyssa had managed to sneak into his thoughts, but it was the first time he'd ever included her in his list of reasons why he was grateful he'd survived a fight. Usually it was just his ship, his men, and his revenge, the revenge being the top priority of it all. Granted, this had been the first time he'd truly been in an actual fight where he sustained injuries in quite a while. It had almost been a year since their world had unfrozen from time, about 9 months and the land itself was still recovering, slowly.

This night had been the first time in quite a while that a tavern was even open when they made their next port. He had thought, as they'd had a good run, to let the man celebrate their endeavors and spend a little longer on dry land, at the tavern of course.

And that was how it all started.

What had made him agree to allow Lyssa to accompany them was truly beyond him. The girl could barely live the life on the sea, was only passingly (if someone was blind, deaf, and dumb) believable as a pirate, and the only woman among them…and sweet to boot. And he had decided, beyond his own reasoning, that it would be safe to allow her into the tavern with them. As though she didn't stick out like a sore thumb wearing her light blues while they were all wearing darker colors. As though her long ginger hair didn't make her stick out more among their colors as well. Her smile and wide eyes, her entire expression, even to her posture and stance had screamed of someone too innocent to be there.

It had made her a target, of course it had.

He had stepped away from their table for just a moment, just a single moment, he was just going to go to the bar, order them two mugs of rum so she could get her first taste of it (and he had been sure, as sure as he was that the sun would rise in the east, that her reaction to the taste would be priceless), that was all he was going to do. It wouldn't take more than a minute…and, of course, in those few moments, just as he reached the bar, he heard a small startled yelp from behind him.

He hadn't even needed to look over to see who had made it before he was rushing back to the table, because he knew that yelp. His men had gotten a fair share of little pranks in on the girl, a sort of initiation for her, where they would try to spook her. They had all heard that yelp more than a few times in the past and he knew it was Lyssa.

He raced back to the table, only to see her backed up against a wall, a large, brutish man with rotting teeth and soiled clothing grabbing her wrist tightly in his hand as he grinned lecherously at her.

Had it been any other woman, he knew he would have just walked away. Because any other woman in a tavern like that would be able to handle themselves. The only other women there besides Lyssa were the barmaids and wenches that were used to dealing with men of the sort, or women that were members of other crews and likely had more experience and skill to them than Lyssa had. She couldn't defend herself as easily as the other women, something the man had seemed to pick up on.

When he saw Lyssa wince as the man squeezed her wrist, leaning back as the man stepped far too close to her, and look over at him with her wide eyes sparkling with fear…that had been it.

He didn't remember much of the actual fight, he knew he'd grabbed the man's arm with his hook and pulled him back, sending a sound blow to the man's face with his other hand. And that had sparked the fire.

Instantly two other men were up and grabbing at him, dealing blows of their own before his men could get to him and help…which only added fuel as more and more men got involved. Soon enough the entire tavern was filled with fighting and gunshots going off and glass shattering, men being thrown out windows and swords being drawn.

He had paused in his attacks, having gotten nearly slashed at, for only one moment, when he heard the click of a gun cocking behind him, the barrel being pressed against the back of his skull…when there was the sound of shattering glass.

He spun around to see the large brutish man that had grabbed Lyssa crumple to the floor, Lyssa behind him with a broken bottle of some sort of drink in her hand, having smashed it down on the man's head, knocking him out. She looked so shocked at what she'd done, so pale and frightened, he'd just grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the tavern, yanking Smee back by the collar of his shirt and barking his order at the man to get Lyssa back to the ship, that he and the crew would rejoin them when the brawl was over.

And it had ended bloody, just not as bloody for him.

He nearly grunted when he heard a soft knock on the door, "What is it?!" he snapped.

There was silence on the other end, making him think whoever it was had left, but then a quiet voice called out, "Killian?"

He looked over at the door, hearing Lyssa's voice, surprised to hear it as she rarely ever came to his room, propriety and all, "Aye?"

"I know it's improper but…may I come in?"

"Aye," he repeated, watching as the door slowly opened to reveal her standing there, a small bowl in her hand, a little rag hanging out the side of it, "What is it lass?"

Lyssa bit her lip but stepped further in, glancing at him a moment before shutting the door behind her, yet remained standing in front of it as she faced him, "I um, I just wanted to check on you," she swallowed hard and, while he knew any other time it could have been a reaction to seeing him with his shirt off as he was sitting up in bed, he knew this time, from the expression on her face, it was because of the bruises and cuts that dotted along his chest, "And…and make sure you were tended to before you went to sleep," she held up the small bowl, "You shouldn't leave cuts unclean or they can get infected and I managed to find some herbs to help with the bruises and Mr. Smee told me that the crew was fine when I went to check on them and thank them but he mentioned you had gotten the worst of it and I didn't want to leave you alone to tend to them because I saw Starkey there and not with you and I just wanted to make sure someone took care of you, like you took care of me, and I..."

"Lass," he cut in, seeing her starting to ramble, her entire being still looking pale and shaken from earlier, "Get over here."

"Really?" Lyssa looked at him hopefully.

He merely nodded, shifting in bed slightly so that he was sitting up even more, making it easier for her to tend to him. He should send her off, he should send her back to her room, tell her that he was fine, that he could tend to himself, he had many times in the past…but he could practically feel the guilt wafting off her. Her posture, her expression, her voice, all of it screamed at him that she felt so terribly about what happened in the tavern, about how he'd been hurt, that he knew she'd be out of sorts for days if he didn't let her tend to him now.

"Thank you," Lyssa breathed, making her way over, sitting on the very edge of his bed and placing the bowl of water on his side table, dabbing the cloth into it to begin to clean around his cuts first, "I'm sorry," she murmured, "I put you and the crew in danger…I…" she swallowed hard, taking a breath, focusing on his cut instead of him, "I understand if you want me to leave or…"

"Leave?" he nearly jerked at that word, though he was sure it was from the sting of her getting too close to his cut than anything else, it was that, surely it was, "Why would you leave?"

She gave him a look, "I put you and the crew in danger," she repeated.

"We're pirates, love," he shook his head, "We're always in danger."

"But you shouldn't have been," she argued, focusing on his cut again, "If I hadn't been there, that fight wouldn't have started and…"

He chuckled at that, "Oh, lass, you really haven't been to a tavern have you?" he shook his head, "Fights break out every night, you being there wouldn't have stopped one happening."

"Maybe not," she murmured, turning to pick the bowl up, pulling a little pouch from the pocket of her skirt to sprinkle into it, mixing it up, the smell of the herbs making him relax against the headboard automatically, "But you can't deny THIS one happened because of me. If I hadn't been there, you all wouldn't have gotten involved or hurt."

"All these months, you still don't understand pirates either," he mused, "Aye, lass, we would have gotten involved. There's a thrill in the fight."

She leaned in slightly to dab the cloth on his bruises now, her gaze flickering up when he hissed, "Did I hurt you?"

"No," he shook his head, "Cold," he offered, hoping she would look down before she noticed his face heating up. He hadn't been expecting her to tend his chest so quickly, the feel of her fingers pressing the cloth to him, her flesh just ghosting over his skin…it was oddly intimate and he hadn't been ready for it.

She gave him a soft, small smile for his words, clearly thinking she HAD hurt him or pushed on the bruises too much and lightened her touch, "I'm sorry," she repeated for what he was sure was the hundredth time since it all happened, "I shouldn't have pushed so much to come to the tavern."

"The men were going," he shrugged, wincing as she dabbed another wound, "You wanted to experience the life of a pirate. That means taverns."

Lyssa was silent a little while, "That…wasn't entirely why I wanted to go so badly," she admitted.

"Oh?" he glanced at her, but she was focused on his wounds.

She nodded absently, sighing slightly, "It's just…it's going to sound silly."

"You're a silly woman," he shrugged, trying to ease her mood, "Oi!" he winced as she purposefully poked him (lightly) on a bruise for it.

"If you're not going to be serious…"

"Serious about the silly story?" he jerked to the side as she moved to poke him again.

Lyssa hesitated a moment, "When I was younger, there was a fairy. She came to help my mother find her soulmate," she explained, "She used pixie dust to do it and, well, mother went with her, following the glow of it. And it led her to a tavern. He was in there, her soulmate, he was inside that tavern."

"And what?" he shook his head, "Now you think that people find their soulmates in taverns?" he nearly snorted at that, would have had he not seen that she was truly being serious and open with him about more of her past.

She bit her lip, "I know it sounds silly," she muttered, and she did know how it sounded. But she had been so young and when a fairy comes and uses magic and someone finds their soulmate, what else DO you think but that's how it always happens for adults? She didn't have a fairy to help her, but she had a tavern she could go to and if her mother could find her soulmate in one, maybe she would too?

"It's bloody ridiculous," he grunted.

"You don't have to be so mean about it," she huffed.

"Look," he reached out to grab her hand, stilling it, making her look at him for the action, "You're not going to meet your soulmate in a tavern. Not someone like you."

"Someone like me?" she frowned at that, "You still don't think I can be a good pirate."

He rolled his eyes, "It's not about that, lass. You are…good," he left it at that, "The men who go to taverns, they're…not. You deserve better than a man who frequents a tavern."

Lyssa was silent at that, "I just…I always thought it would be like the stories, the…the damsel in distress and the handsome man that comes to rescue her and they fall in love."

"Is that how it happened for your mother?" he questioned.

"No," she admitted with a sigh, "It was love at first sight for them."

She could still remember the first time her mother and 'father' looked at each other, she hadn't understood it then, being so young, but they were smitten.

"Even if your vision for yourself is how it's meant to happen for you," he continued, "No man in a tavern will come to your rescue."

She looked up at him for that, "YOU did."

He blinked, "Aye…but I was the one that brought you to the tavern in the first place. That doesn't count."

She nodded slowly at that, "Thank you for it though," she smiled slightly, "For taking me, for helping me, protecting me. You didn't have to…"

"Aye, love, I did," he cut in, "If I returned you to your mother with a single hair missing…" he mock-shuddered, making her give a little laugh.

"She's not that bad," she defended.

He scoffed at that this time, "Says you."

"You don't know her, not like I do," she insisted, though they fell quiet soon after, allowing her to focus on the last of his wounds, growing serious, "Thank you, Killian," she murmured, "For protecting me. I'm sorry you were hurt."

"This?" he gestured at his chest, shaking his head, seeing tears starting to form in her eyes as she finished up, not wanting that, not wanting tears, he didn't want to deal with tears after all this, "It's nothing, lass, I've had worse, believe me."

"I just…"

"No," he cut in, pointing his hook at her in a warning manner, "You are…one of the crew," he sighed, "As much as I deny it at times, you ARE part of the crew, you have been for a while now, and I protect my crew. We protect each other. And, if I recall rightly, you did a fair bit of protecting too."

She smiled a little at that, "I guess I did…"

"Saved my life you did."

"You saved mine too," she pointed out.

"Let's say our debts are settled in this account then."

"But I didn't…"

"You also tended to my wounds," he reminded her, knowing she was going to argue that she hadn't done enough, not after being the basic cause for the fight in the first place, "I can't say I've had that happen in quite some time."

"The men don't…"

"No."

"But Starkey is…"

"No," he shook his head, "I don't let him tend to me, I prefer to do it myself."

"Then why did you…"

"You would feel guilty if you didn't do something to see that I wasn't dying of a mere flesh wound."

She pouted at that, "Stop finishing my thoughts."

"I'm not lass," he laughed, "You're an open book," he reminded her, she was easy to read, especially after being around her so long, he knew what she was going to argue before she did it seemed.

"You didn't have to let me do this if it makes you uncomfortable," Lyssa slowly pulled her hand away from his wounds, not wanting to make him more so but also having just finished.

He squeezed her hand quickly before letting go, just realizing that he hadn't let go of her hand earlier, "It doesn't," he reassured her, "I just…haven't had anyone tend to me in a long time. I haven't wanted them to."

"But you want ME to?" she tilted her head at that, a little startled by his confession.

"I, er, I meant, I haven't had anyone want to," he cleared his throat, sitting up a little straighter, "And, as captain, I'd rather the men not see me injured."

"Is that why you wear so much black?" she wondered, "So they can't see if you get hurt?"

"Oh, more because it brings out my dashing good looks," he joked, making her smile, "I look good in black."

Lyssa had to nod at that, it did suit him, "I wonder if I'd look good in black…"

"No."

"Hey!" she gave him an almost offended look, "I could pull off black."

"You couldn't pull off black anymore than Snow White could."

The silence that fell was palpable, "Please don't compare me to her," Lyssa spoke quietly.

He nodded at that, knowing her feelings on the woman, "My apologies."

She returned his nod, glancing at the small window of his room, "I should return to my room," she stood slowly, "It's late and you need rest."

"Lyssa," he called when she reached the door, waiting till she turned to face him, knowing he had effectively ruined whatever small moment they were having, whatever sort of moment it was, but needing to ask her something before she departed, "You…WEREN'T harmed, were you?"

She smiled softly at that, understanding his concern, "No," she told him, "Just…well," she held up her arm, letting her sleeve fall down to reveal a bit of bruising from where the man had grabbed her, "Just this, but you kept me from getting hurt worse. Thank you for that."

"Thank you for this," he gestured at his cleaned wounds and bandaged areas.

She nodded, "Goodnight Killian," she spoke softly, "Have good dreams."

"And you lass," he offered, the first time he had returned the sentiment back to her.

She smiled wider at that and left, shutting the door quietly behind her.

Hook leaned back on the bed, letting out a deep breath as he let his mind wander, about to turn and blow out the candlestick to get some rest, when the door opened again just after a louder knock sounded.

"What do you want, Smee?" he demanded as the door was pushed open, recognizing the knocks.

"Just wanted to check up on you, Captain," Smee seemed to be grinning FAR too widely for just that.

"Out with it Smee," he shot the man a look.

"I saw Miss Analyssa leaving," Smee smirked, "She was smiling."

"She's always smiling."

"She was in here a long time," Smee continued, "Longer than I've ever seen any of the women be allowed since…"

"Finish that, and I cut your tongue out," he glared, knowing Smee was about to mention Milah.

Smee held up his hands, looking behind him into the hall before entering the room entirely, shutting the door behind him even as Hook rolled his eyes at the action, "You don't let anyone in your room…"

"YOU'RE in my rooms, and I'd like you to get OUT."

"Did you order her out?" Smee eyed him.

"Of course not."

"Why?"

"She was tending my wounds Smee. You recall, I received them just hours ago in a brawl. As such, I want to rest. So get out or I'll feed you to the fishes come dawn."

Smee shook his head, "You let her tend your wounds…"

"Aye," Hook sighed, irritated now, rubbing his forehead as he felt a headache coming on, "She was feeling guilty and it would be bad form to just cast her out."

"She caused a fight," Smee eyed his captain curiously, "You defended her."

"It's good form to come to a woman's defense when she is in need of it, pirate or not."

"You say that a lot."

"Say, WHAT Smee?"

"How it's good form or bad form."

"I always say that," he gave the man a dark look, "Smee, out with it. You came here to say something, so say it and be off with you."

"You do that _all_ the time now," Smee finally spoke, "You keep talking about how it's good form or bad form, more than ever, ever since Miss Analyssa joined us."

"Your point, Smee, make your point."

"You really don't see it, Captain?" Smee seemed startled.

"See what?"

"It's only about her," Smee began, "You can get cross at us and berate us, or be proud of us, but it's never about good or bad form in how you treat US. But when it comes to her…" he hesitated, "Sir, do you not think it odd that you deflect to that?"

"And what would I have to deflect to it?" Hook rolled his eyes.

"That you like her," Smee stated.

"What?"

"Maybe even love her…"

"Smee," Hook actually started to laugh at that, "I don't…I am NOT in love with Lyssa."

"I think you are."

"And I think you've been drinking your weight in ale again," Hook scoffed.

"I didn't have a drink all night," Smee frowned, "You ordered me not to, to keep a clear head if anything happened. Which it did. So you know I'm not drunk."

"You must have snuck some in then."

"Captain…"

"Get out, Smee," Hook gave him a hard look now, serious, "I am retiring for the night. Take first watch."

Smee let out a deep sigh but knew not to continue to argue with the captain, not when he was like that. He always used that as a sign to them, NOT to press an issue when he ordered them to take watch. It meant he wanted to not deal with them, and it was his way of punishing them for irritating him.

So he just nodded and turned to go.

Hook huffed, turning to blow out the candle and flop back on his bed, one of the few that existed on the ship. There were only two, his bed and Lyssa's. The rest of the crew slept in hammocks in the crew's quarters. But he preferred his bed, as much as the hammocks rocked with the waves, he preferred the solid feel of the bed beneath him, that and a bed was much easier to invite a woman into than a hammock.

He looked up at the beams above him, not able to see most of it due to the dark night, the clouds blocking most of the stars and the moon, leaving little light to see by.

Smee, he must have gotten more than just a tankard of ale snuck in to say THAT to him. He must have drunk half a barrel to even be able to say such a thing to his face. And it was just ridiculous, what the man was implying.

What, that just because he referenced things being good form or bad form around Lyssa and in regards to her that it suddenly meant something more? His first words to his crew, centuries ago, had been that it was bad form to be drunk! He spoke about form all the time. Admittedly…perhaps he HAD been saying it more in reference to Lyssa and how she should be treated, how he treated her and why.

But that meant nothing.

She was just…a woman, and a weak one at that and she needed to be protected. She wasn't Milah, she wasn't even close, and his heart belonged to Milah, it always would. Milah was the sort of woman he would want, a pirate at heart, brave and conniving and strong. Not…not like Lyssa.

Lyssa was too weak for him, too kind and pure and understanding, too gentle-hearted and honest. Just because she could smile at anything and get him to smile in return, it meant nothing. And just because her laughter sounded nice meant little. Her eyes being the same shade as the clear sea he loved or her hair being the shade of the sun as it set didn't mean a thing. And just because he felt the need to protect her more than anything else, it was just because she was so slim and small and she needed it more than others did. He feared for her because she was part of the crew, not because he cared. Not at all. No. He did not care about her at all.

He bit back a groan, covering his eyes with his free hand, and wiping it down his face.

He cared about her didn't he?

He cared about her too much if even SMEE could tell he treated her differently.

Had he? Had he REALLY started to use good form or bad form as an excuse for how he treated Lyssa differently? He must have if Smee picked up on it. The man wasn't the sharpest sword in the scabbard, for him to notice…it had to be saying something.

He thought back, to all the times he'd spoken of form in relation to Lyssa and really did groan this time. More often than not, it was about her, how it was bad form to leave her alone unprotected, how it was good form to defend her, how it was bad form to kick her out when she was trying to help, and good form to protect her and…so many other instances it made his head spin.

He had to stop it.

He had to stop doing that.

Because, yes, he might care about her, she was part of the crew, that was it, that was why he cared. Not because of love, no, Smee was wrong about that, dead wrong. And he would prove it too, he would stop talking about form.

It should be easy, because he DIDN'T love her.

He didn't.

Not at all.

And he never would.

Ever.

A/N: Oh Hook, I wonder if he's ever been to Egypt, because he's certainly taking a long swim in de Nile lol ;) But at least he's realized he's defaulted to 'good form' or 'bad form' when he talks about Lyssa, sort of like a defense for why he treats her differently than the crew, but even the crew can tell it's just an excuse ;)

Some notes on reviews...

I'm glad you like the fleshing out for Regina :) There's MUCH more to come for her and Hook as the story goes ;) I agree, it seemed odd that Regina would kill the king first when it would be easier to get to Snow first and then take out the mourning Leopold, it made me think that, over the years, she came to hate him just as much as Snow and this story will examine more of what those years were like }:)

The DW stories have been on hold a while :( But Angel's Series 8, along with her AU and Proffy's AU, should be resumed in April :)


	15. In the Name of the Brother

In the Name of the Brother

Hook groaned as he slowly came to, not sure if he should feel happy or relieved about that considering, on one hand, the Dark One hadn't gone after him in the time he'd been unconscious, but, on the other hand, he was now surrounded by heroes, namely Emma Swan, who had arrived at the scene.

"What's going on?" a man Hook recognized as Prince Charming called out, surveying the scene, hurrying over to the Dark One's side as Belle frantically tried to get away from him, which made him smirk widely to see.

"She crossed over the line," Gold told the man, "She doesn't remember."

Hook looked over as a shadow fell over his view to see Emma standing over him at the side of the road, "Hello lass," he grinned, feeling far too joyous about the Dark One's plight to really care about the hard expression on Emma's face, "Here, I didn't think you'd notice…" he grunted hard as Emma knelt down and pushed on his ribs, sending ripples of pain racing through him.

"Your ribs are broken," she stated.

He was almost impressed with that, with how a so-called hero had used his pain against him for clearly she wasn't just checking on his ribs. Given the situation and that monstrous box on wheels, how he was laying to the side of it, he had been hit by it. She would have had to know or suspect that his ribs would be broken and the pressure she'd put on them was far more than just double checking, she'd done it on purpose.

It was quite different from Lyssa, he thought vaguely, the girl would be in a flurry of concern, trying to be as gentle as possible, trying to scout the area for any herbs or things she could use to help. Even if it was an enemy that just attacked her she'd still try to help them, she hated people being in pain. But Emma? No, that blonde would sooner use a person's pain against them and to get information from them. It was admirable, to a pirate at least.

"Oh, that must be why it hurts when I laugh," Hook nearly wheezed as Emma released him, though it only served to make him grin despite the pain, "Did you see his face? His one true love, gone in an instant!" he laughed, "Just like Milah, Crocodile!" he called over, "When you took her from me…"

He could see confusion in Emma's face at his words, likely thinking about Lyssa and hadn't they both been rather close in the Enchanted Forest so why was he bringing up old wounds and talking about Milah. He opened his mouth to bait the Dark One more, needing him to do something before Emma voiced Lyssa's name, when the man attacked first.

"But you took her first!" Gold shouted, lunching at Hook with his cane, digging it into Hook's neck, trying to choke him.

"Gold, are you insane?!" Emma cried, moving to try and shove him off, but the man would not be moved.

"Yes, I am!"

"You can't do that!" David ran over to help try and get him off, only managing to pull him back a little.

"I can if you let me go."

"You don't want her to see that," Emma hissed to him, glancing at a frightened Belle speaking to Mary Margaret, but her gaze flickering over to them every few seconds.

"I'm a stranger to her."

"Murder is a bad first impression."

Hook would have snorted at that had he not been struggling to keep breathing. The first time Lyssa had met him he'd been about to murder Belle and clearly that had not had all that bad an impression on her if she loved him now. The first time Emma had met him he'd been covered in bodies that had been murdered by Cora as he stood by and let it happen, and she had yet to kill him.

"What would Belle want you to do?" David tried to reason with him.

However it wasn't his words that distracted Gold long enough to be pulled off of Hook, but the arrival of an ambulance.

"Over here!" David called, hauling Gold off of the pirate and gesturing the paramedics towards them, however Emma shook her head and stepped forward, redirecting their focus to the crashed car.

"No! Him!" she pointed at the driver she could just barely make out in the car, "Take care of him," she glanced at Hook disdainfully, "HE can wait."

Hook rolled his eyes but flopped down on the ground, trying to regain his breath. He knew speaking of Milah would trigger the Dark One to attack, he'd been counting on it. He needed the imp to connect the loss of Belle to the loss of Milah, to see that he was a threat that could very well take away his new love just as he had his old love, in different ways of course. He needed the Dark One to see him as a danger to Belle, as someone that could truly hurt her, even more now that she had no idea what was going on. He needed that, because that was the only way he'd be able to get the Dark One to stay away from Lyssa, if HE agreed to stay away from Belle in return. He needed to make himself out to be a threat to the man's love.

This? This was not his revenge, not by a long shot, but it was a way to keep his own love safe till he could see his revenge through, and that was all that mattered right now.

"What?"

He looked over as he heard Mary Margaret call out to her daughter.

"There's someone in there," Emma nodded towards the car, watching as the paramedics began to extract a man from it, before glancing at her parents, "Do you know this guy?"

Mary Margaret looked concerned, knowing Emma was asking if he might just be from the Enchanted Forest and been left outside the curse like she and Pinnochio had been, but that was not the case here, "I've never seen him before."

"That's because he drove into town," David sighed.

Mary Margaret gasped, "From the outside?"

Emma nodded, looking grim, "Looks like the world just came to Storybrooke."

Hook grinned behind them, unable to believe his luck, this would work out perfectly. Because the heroes would be greatly concerned by something like this happening, they'd be more focused and worried about this new man than mere 'villains' and that would be all it took, a mere distraction, to help see his plans through.

~8~

Hook blinked a few times, feeling slightly dazed and disoriented, only to see that he was in a rather white room that smelled of cleaners, dressed in a rather scratchy garb that felt nothing like his usual leather…and Emma Swan was standing over him, yet again, as he laid in a bed. He couldn't quite remember how he'd gotten there, he must have blacked out from the pain or the exhaustion of being hit by such a large object, whatever the case was…he was at her mercy, again.

He was starting to grow rather irritated by that.

"Where's Cora?" Emma demanded, getting right to the point.

"What?" he tried to move, only to look over and see his arm, the one with his hand, was handcuffed to the bedrail, "Again?" he huffed, before turning to smirk at her, hoping to disarm her, "You're really into this, aren't you?" but she just reached down and poked him in the ribs, making him hiss again, "Damn, that hurts."

"Told you," Emma smirked this time, "Cracked a few ribs. Where's Cora?"

Hook glanced at her, "You look good, I must say. All 'where's Cora?' in a commanding voice. Chills."

"Don't you have a girlfriend to compliment instead of me?" Emma scoffed, knowing he was saying it just to annoy her, to mock her, and not to actually compliment her, "Keep in mind, you have all sorts of sore places. I can make you hurt," she pushed on his ribs gain, making him wince.

"I have no idea where Cora is," Hook 'gave in,' not that there was much Emma could really do to get him to talk.

He'd endured worse torture than this and held his tongue, and she was a hero too, she wouldn't ever go as far as some villains he knew would. But he really didn't care if Cora was caught or found out or anything, in fact, if he could, he would have told her exactly where Cora was, had he known. He wanted them to focus on the sorceress, best let her be a target of the heroes instead of him. And if they went after her first, there was less chance she'd encounter Lyssa and she and her mother would be safer from that insane woman. As much as Lyssa believed Snow White to be the worst of two evils, he felt it was more Cora that had to be avoided even now.

"She has her own agenda. Let's talk about something I am interested in," he held up his free hand, his stump of a hand because something very central to it was missing, again, "My hook. May I have it back? Or is there another attachment you'd prefer?"

Emma frowned at him, "You're awfully chipper for a guy who just failed to kill his enemy, then got hit by a car."

Hook smirked, pleased to hear that was all the heroes thought it was, a 'failed' attempt instead of what his real goal was, "Well, my ribs may be broken, but…" he wiggled, "Everything else is still intact. Which my lady love shall be pleased with," Emma rolled her eyes at that, not seeing he was speaking of more than just some other appendages and more that Lyssa would be glad he wasn't harmed more than he had been, that girl really hated seeing him in pain, "That is more than can be said for other bad days I've had. Plus, I did some quality damage to my foe."

Emma gave him a look, "You hurt _Belle_."

He nodded, "I hurt his heart. Belle's just where he keeps it. He killed my love. I know the feeling."

Emma seemed confused by that, "Wouldn't your revenge have been better to kill her instead of just hurt her or…Gold's heart or whatever?"

"Thinking like a villain," Hook smirked, not about to give away all his plans, "Impressive."

Emma hardened at that, as though she were encouraging him to kill Belle, "Keep smiling, buddy. You're chained down, he's on his feet, immortal, has magic, and you hurt his girl. If I were to pick dead guy of the year? I'd pick you."

Hook could only give her an infuriating smirk in reply as she turned to leave, letting him settle back on the bed. He could accept being 'dead guy of the year' if it meant he would go down taking the Dark One with him, if it meant Lyssa would ultimately be safe during his quest for revenge as well.

Hurt the Dark One's heart and he would be even more desperate to protect it in the future. Offer him a deal that keeps said heart safe, and he would take it, even if it would put him at a disadvantage, leverage wise, down the road.

And, doubly beneficial for him…if he could manage to get the Dark One to stand down when it came to targeting Lyssa…it would also mean that he couldn't use the girl to get to Regina either. The Evil Queen would see his actions as protecting her daughter and that, he sincerely hoped, would earn him her respect and blessing to continue to court Lyssa as well.

He certainly did NOT want to be on the receiving end of one of her fireballs when he saw her next, which he undoubtedly would be. She had given Lyssa to him for protection, not to pursue a courtship with. Lyssa was the woman's daughter and he had heard tell of the lengths the woman had gone to to keep her child safe. He didn't doubt for a moment she wouldn't be pleased to discover her daughter had fallen in love with a pirate and that said pirate was him, though he hoped that she would see it could have been worse…he could have been Blackbeard. But still, if he could find a way to keep Lyssa safe from harm from the Dark One, it would mean something to him and the Queen, and hopefully gain him more favor with her. After all, it would be bad form to continue a courtship without the blessing of the woman's family.

Never let it be said that Captain Hook didn't still have _some_ sort of honor left.

~8~

Lyssa looked at Regina through the mirror of a small vanity set up in her crypt-bedroom, smiling softly when she saw the gentle smile on her mother's face, the first that had really happened since all of this mess had occurred. Her mother always smiled like that though when she would brush her hair, she always said it was soothing and calming for a mother to brush her daughter's hair. Of course, she had always added on how the opposite was true for her brushing Snow White's hair, but the long ginger hair of her 'true daughter' always made her feel better.

That had always been the main difference between how Regina viewed her compared to Snow White. Snow White wanted a mother to do these certain tasks for her because that's what mothers do and because Regina was her mother now she HAD to do them. When it came to her, it was that her mother _wanted_ to do them, not that she was being forced to do them because of her title. It came from a place of love. A mother wasn't a mother because they brushed their daughter's hair, a mother was a mother because she wanted to do it as a small act of care towards her child. Snow had taken so many motherly actions and made them feel more like chores for Regina, things she was required to do as 'mother' instead of allowing it to come naturally to her.

Regina had been forced to be mother to Snow White, but she had CHOSEN to be mother to her, which was all the difference in the world. She could feel it even now, the gentleness, the tenderness, the loving care that only a mother could have when it came to doing her daughter's hair. She had seen it as a child, when Regina would have to brush Snow's hair, she always put a small, forced smile on, nodding along while Snow jabbered away, her strokes more mechanical than loving, not like now. She always knew that her mother preferred tending to her hair than Snow's because she would run her fingers through it every so often, something she never did with Snow.

"Thank you mama," she added quietly, something Snow never did either. Oh the girl would always say 'it's beautiful!' or 'My hair looks wonderful!' but never a simple 'thank you' which she knew her mother appreciated even if she waved it off every time, just like now.

"It's nothing," Regina smiled more at that, "I missed this," she admitted. Having a little prince, as much as she adored Henry, there was always something lost in not being able to brush his hair like she would for a little girl.

"I did too," Lyssa smiled at her through the mirror in return.

"Shall I do your hair too?" Regina teased.

"No," Lyssa laughed, for all the intricate hairstyles her mother could pull off, those NOT done by magic were done by her instead. Her mother, bless her, was terrible at actually managing hair styles when she didn't resort to magic. She'd taught her mother a simple braid once so she could try to do her hair for her…and ended up with nothing but knots that were an endless tangle to get out.

Ironically though, she was equally as bad at doing her own hair as her mother was at doing other's hair. She could manage a plait though, and that was enough for her as she quickly put her hair into one.

She turned around, about to remark about the hairstyles she used to love in the forest, to offer to do her mother's hair even with it being shorter, see what she could do with it…when another voice echoed through the room from outside it.

"Mom?"

"Is that…" Lyssa looked over at the wall, her eyes wide.

"Henry," Regina breathed, sounding equally as stunned.

"Hello?" Henry continued to call, "Hello? Hello? Mom?"

Regina quickly walked over to the wall, waving her hand before the mirror hanging on it to hollow it out, making it more a window than a mirror, allowing them to see Henry looking around the crypt for her. Lyssa stood slowly, holding her breath that, judging by how Henry was calling Regina 'mom' again, that they'd somehow learned the truth.

"You in there? Can I come in? Mom?"

Regina looked back at Lyssa who quickly nodded, smiling eagerly, as she turned back and waved her hand, opening the wall so that Henry could see the secret room behind it.

"Mom?" Henry walked towards it, instantly running and hugging Regina as he saw her, "Mom!"

Lyssa beamed, tears in her eyes, her hands clasped together and pressed against her mouth as she watched the happy reunion.

"Henry, I'm so glad you're here," Regina hugged him tightly, "I missed you so much when…" she cut off, pulling away to lean over and look him in the eye, something Lyssa recognized Daniel used to do to her as well, "I have to let you know, I had nothing to do with Archie."

"I know," Henry nodded, "I always knew."

Lyssa's smile started to fade at that, not sure if Henry was lying to try and make their mother feel better or…well…she didn't know but his words, how easily he'd said them, how sincerely, it made a pit form in her stomach…because the Henry she knew had certainly NOT always known…

Regina didn't seem to notice, "I was framed. I don't know how. I…it just seems like everything…" but then his words caught up to her as well, "You knew? How did you know?"

Lyssa opened her mouth to tell her mother that she had gone to see Henry and try to convince him she was innocent, but Henry smirked in a very un-Henry like way, beating her to it with a, "Simple," before a puff of blue smoke swirled around him…and Cora was standing in his place, "Because I did it."

"Cora," Lyssa's voice shook as her eyes widened at the sight of the woman standing before them.

"Mother," Regina frowned, instantly moving to stand in front of Lyssa, as she always did when her mother was in the same room as her daughter, not about to EVER let her get close enough to the girl to do what she had done once before and rip her heart out, "I thought we stopped you. How did you get through?!"

"Determination," Cora said simply, not seeming at all upset or surprised at Regina's instant move of defense for the ginger girl who seemed completely thrown that she was there, "And help from a certain pirate."

"Killian," Lyssa breathed, taking just the smallest step to the side, "Is he…is he here too?"

"He's around somewhere, I'm sure," Cora waved it off, "I don't know. I had more important business to take care of."

"Turning the town against me?" Regina glared.

"Coming to see you," Cora corrected, "I needed to tell you, that I know why you sent me through the looking glass. And I know why you tried to have me killed."

"Someone had to love their daughter," Regina defended, remembering those times, remembering the fear that had been in her, for her daughter, for what Cora had nearly done to her. Both times, a part of her reason for dealing with her mother as she had, had come from a need to keep Lyssa safe, from love for her daughter.

"Yes," Cora sighed, though her gaze flickered to how Lyssa put a reassuring hand on Regina's arm, "And it's…it's alright."

Regina shook her head, feeling tears pooling in her eyes as she thought about everything Cora had done that had led up to those moments, the threat she had to have been to have earned her own daughter needing her dead instead of just banished, "I think it's not alright. The reasons I did it, the things YOU did that made me…"

"I love you," Cora cut in, "I just…I've always shown it in all the wrong ways," her lips pursed, just barely managing not to frown at how Lyssa had moved beside Regina, taking her hand, the girl's focus on Regina's face as tears continued to gather, "And I never should have made you marry the King."

"You really shouldn't have," Lyssa murmured, putting her other hand on Regina's arm too, seeing her mother close her eyes and flinch at the reminder of Leopold.

There had to be something far more going on than mere hatred of Snow White for her to kill the king first and make it that much harder to extract revenge on Snow. Kill Snow first when she's not on edge about a death, and then take out the grieving king, that would have been smart. But she knew that Leopold had hurt her mother a good deal throughout the years in different ways, enough where she had come to hate the king just as much as her mother had. No one ever seemed to think on that though, why she struck out at Leopold first when it would have been easier to get rid of both him and Snow had she attacked Snow first.

"I'm so sorry," Cora whispered, almost sounding genuine, "When you cried over my coffin, it…it all changed."

Regina shook her head, glaring at her mother now, "You framed me for the cricket!"

HOW was that change if her mother was STILL trying to ruin her life?

"Temporarily," Cora pointed out, watching as Regina and Lyssa glanced at each other for that, understanding that the truth truly HAD come out apparently, "So you could see what these people really think of you."

Regina squeezed Lyssa's hand when she saw the girl open her mouth to defend her, just KNOWING she was going to remark about how no one in the town would EVER be able to really know her mother because of all the secrets that had been kept from them already. Whatever they 'really thought' about her mother, it was likely the farthest thing from what they should actually think of her. Cora had done her no favors in that, she always knew that the town thought of her as a villain, she had encouraged it at one point, needed them to think her dangerous and deadly, fear was an effective tool. But she couldn't let her mother know that.

"You made an airtight case," Regina said instead, "Anyone would believe it."

"I didn't want you to reject me," Cora tried, "Not again."

Regina frowned at her, "You wanted me broken."

"Receptive."

"Broken," Lyssa repeated, "All of you. All of you kept trying to break her…"

Regina squeezed her hand again, quieting her, seeing she'd nearly given it away in her words, 'trying to break her' as though they hadn't broken her.

"You are the most manipulative…" Regina cut herself off, "No. I won't even argue. Come with me. We're going to town."

"It's the middle of the night…" Cora tried to argue.

"I don't care," Regina snapped, "We'll wake them up, Emma and Henry and the two idiots, and you can tell them how you lied. You owe me that."

"And then you'll let us start over?" Cora smiled.

But Regina shook her head, "I don't see that happening, mother. But I tried very hard to be worthy of my children, and I deserve the same thing from you."

This time Lyssa squeezed her hand, but not to stop her talking, in a show of support and reassurance. She most certainly WAS worth of her, of both her children, even if Henry didn't see it yet.

"You're right," Cora nodded, though it seemed forced to both of them, "For you, sweetheart. Anything."

Lyssa bit her lip at that, Cora sounded...nice, just then. And the only time Cora ever sounded nice...was when she was lying.

~8~

Lyssa sat rigidly in the backseat of Regina's 'car' as they were called, not used to travelling by them at such speeds without control being in her hands. It was different racing a horse, you held the reins, it was different even being in a carriage, you couldn't see where you were going or how quickly. This was very, very different as she could see, clearly, where they were going and how fast and she had no control at all over any of it and…she might be panicking just a little, but trying not to let on as Regina had enough to worry about.

And it could be worse, Cora could have been sitting next to her instead of in front of her in the front by Regina.

"Nervous?" Regina called.

Lyssa looked over, hoping her mother hadn't noticed that fact…only to see she was smirking more at how CORA was nervous instead, the woman sitting just as rigidly and uncomfortably as she was.

"Not about owning up to what I've done," Cora mused, "It's just…" she shifted, "These carriages are strange. And something's irritating me…" she moved more, pulling something out of her pocket, "Oh. _For Mommy_. Oh, that used to be you."

"When were you in my house?!" Regina demanded.

Lyssa frowned and cautiously leaned forward to see what the women were talking about. In Cora's hands was a small heart shaped clay-looking object, painted red, with a tiny handprint in the center and 'For Mommy' written above it as though by a child's finger. It reminded her, oddly enough, of a small craft she had made for Regina as well when she was a child. She knew it wasn't hers, so it had to be Henry's…and Cora had apparently broken into Regina's house and taken it.

Oh that was never good, Cora was good at manipulation, even more when she had something deeply personal and meaningful of a person to use as leverage.

"I haven't had the pleasure," Cora defended.

"That was in my house," Regina scoffed, angry now, "Think I don't know where that was? It's one of my most treasured possessions."

Lyssa gave a small smile at that, not at all feeling jealous that Henry's 'treasured possessions' were in the house while her own were not. She hadn't been in Storybrooke, her mother couldn't just keep her small keepsakes in the house or have people question them and need to explain them. That wasn't to say Regina hadn't kept the keepsakes from the Enchanted Forest. She had seen them, in the crypt, where her mother kept ALL her Enchanted Forest items. Even the room that was attached to the crypt had things scattered about it that belonged to her or that she had given to Regina as gifts in the Forest. Her mother had kept them, and kept them safe and treasured. Henry represented this world, the manor, and she represented the Forest, in the crypt. Her mother had children from both worlds it seemed.

"Well, let's be honest," Cora took on the same scoffing tone, "Taking me to be pilloried by the town might gain you some points, but, as long as Emma and her parents are here, he's not really yours. Not like he was when he made things for his one and only mommy. You've been too bad for too long, and now they see you as a…a snake. You don't want their love at all. What do you want?"

"My son back," Regina sighed, moving to pull the car over in an empty lot instead of before Mary Margaret's apartment building.

Both she and Lyssa knew that Cora's words were meant to manipulate, they had lived around the woman long enough and experienced enough of her tricks to know what she was trying to do. But they also knew that…she wasn't exactly wrong. Despite the law saying Henry was really Regina's, Emma and her parents would NOT give him up, ever, not to the Evil Queen, likely no matter how much she changed. Because she tried, she tried to change and make it stick and make it real…and they'd all turned on her in the first test of trust. The 'evil' had been affixed to 'queen' too long for anyone to call her just Regina, she would always be the 'EVIL Queen' to them, even if she tried to be just a Queen.

She didn't want their love, she really didn't, she only wanted Henry's love. She didn't care if the entire town hated her or distrusted her, so long as her son didn't follow that same path. It was similar in the Enchanted Forest, she could bear the title of Evil Queen, the hatred and anger and distrust of the people, so long as her daughter never saw her as being truly Evil, so long as Lyssa didn't hate her or distrust her either. A woman, a mother, could bear an awful lot for the sake and love of their children.

"And I want my daughter back," Cora insisted, reaching over to place her hand on Regina's arm, "I meant everything I said earlier. I am so sorry. I can do better. I won't push you away again. Let me into your heart, both of you," Lyssa startled as Cora turned to look at her as well, "Together, we can get him back again."

Regina took a breath, pulling her hand away from her mother's to place on the back of the chair, on top of where Lyssa's hand was waiting, making it clear to her mother that Lyssa was in her heart far more than her own mother was, both daring and warning the woman to leave Lyssa out of her manipulations, but not openly opposing her mother either.

"How?" Lyssa asked the question she knew her mother was wondering at Cora's words.

"Oh," Cora smirked, "I have a few thoughts."

A/N: Writing this chapter, I felt even worse for Regina in Season 4, when 'Marian' was frozen. Because the same thing happened there as here, a mother-figure made an 'air tight case' against their 'family' just to show them what the heroes thought of them, in how the Snow Queen framed Elsa. But instead of the same thing happening here, Emma having turned on Regina and believing the evidence against her, Emma, without really any evidence to the contrary, stood up for Elsa and defended her just on Elsa's say so. I get that Emma had likely learned from this exact event and that was why she defended Elsa and trusted her, but it bothered me after writing this chapter. Because imagining Regina during that time, thinking back to this moment, where Emma didn't believe her claims yet was so quick to believe Elsa's :( Both had an airtight argument against them to turn the heroes on them, and they only fell for Regina's case :(

I was tempted to have Hook and Lyssa reunite here, to have Lyssa run off when Cora announced Hook was in Storybrooke and go look for him while Regina left with Cora to bring her to the heroes. But given all that Cora has done to the two of them, I couldn't see Lyssa just up and leave her mother, especially when she hasn't told Regina about falling in love with Hook yet either. She wouldn't trust Cora enough to leave her MOTHER with the woman, and she hasn't heard about the car accident, so she has no idea Hook was injured. Which will make for a very interesting reaction when they do see each other again ;)

I can say that Lyssa is a clever girl, and in this story Regina won't be taken in quite as fully by Cora as in the show, she has her daughter to think of and with a constant reminder of a child before her, she'll have Henry and what he will think of it all more clearly in mind as well ;) But there IS a reason to side with Cora that we'll find out very soon ;)

Last note, for my Flashover update, I plan to get it up in about 7-8 hours, just to give some space between this one and that ;)

No real notes on reviews for the last chapter ;)


	16. Sacrifices of a Queen

A/N: **Warning!** Even though this will reveal a large spoiler for the chapter, I don't feel comfortable posting without a small warning that this chapter will contain reference and evidence of marital rape for anyone that wishes to skip it. I will not be writing the actual act, but the aftermath and I know that it can be a very delicate topic to not include a warning about.

~8~

Sacrifices of a Queen

Lyssa wasn't sure what to feel as her little legs led her through the very large castle that belonged to King Leopold, her new home. The wedding had been earlier that day, the king had wed Regina and so many people seemed happy about it, especially Snow White, but just…SHE couldn't be happy about it. She had snuck in to watch it, there were so many people no one had noticed her. She had been focused on Regina while everyone else looked to Leopold, Regina was not happy. She smiled but it wasn't her real smile, SHE knew what Regina's real smiles looked like and it wasn't that. It was the smile she always gave when Cora hurt her or made her want to cry but she had to put on a brave face because guests were around and Cora would hurt her even more if she gave the guests anything less than a perfect noblewoman.

It was tense and fake and the tears in her eyes were certainly NOT of happiness. She could tell, because she felt like crying too seeing Regina forced to marry someone that wasn't Daniel. She felt like throwing the cake in Snow's face because the girl was so, SO happy, it was just bad. Snow was a real meanie, to make someone get married when there wasn't love, to know Regina wasn't fully happy but not care.

Or maybe Snow didn't know, not many people could tell when Regina was upset when she wanted to hide it, not like her. But it HAD to be obvious though! She had heard some of the serving women whispering about 'the new queen' and how she didn't seem quite as happy as most would be to marry the king. If THEY could tell, only catching glimpses of Regina, why couldn't Snow? It was frustrating and she didn't like it, she didn't like Regina being so sad and she wished dearly that Daniel was there again to make Regina smile like she used to.

She had wanted to run to Regina and give her a big old hug when the king gave a speech at the banquet just after the wedding about how happy he was and how happy Snow was and how he hoped all the people of the realm would be happy now that they had a new queen. He talked about everyone being happy except Regina. He probably knew, the meanie, that Regina wasn't happy and wouldn't be happy, but he still went through with the wedding. She'd really wanted to go hug Regina, but one of the serving ladies had seen her and pulled her back to the kitchens to keep out of the way.

She didn't like the kitchens, they reminded her of Cora and the manor and her mother and how she was always supposed to just sit in the kitchen and be quiet and not make a mess and her mother was gone now and…

She shook her head as she glanced around a corner of a hall that she'd passed, looking for Regina.

She knew she shouldn't bother the woman, not now. The ladies in the kitchen seemed to think that the night was important, that Regina would be very, very tired and need a lot of rest. She didn't think weddings were that tiring though, all Regina had done was stand there and then sit at the banquet table and that was it. How was that tiring?

And she knew Regina would want to see her, because, well, she was scared. It was such a big place, much bigger than the manor, it was a castle. There were so many rooms and floors and stairs and halls and she was sure she was lost. She'd tried to be good, she really had. She'd gone to bed exactly when the servants told her, not complained at all about the little room they'd given her in the very back of a large room that the other servants all shared. She hadn't even cried when she'd laid in the strange new bed.

But she hadn't been able to sleep. The place was big and new and scary and she'd never been anywhere but the manor before and there were strangers around her and she missed Daniel and she knew Regina had to be missing him too. Regina ALWAYS told her that if she had a bad dream or was upset and didn't want to wake her mother to come to HER instead and she'd take care of her. She had visited Regina a few times at the manor, when there was a bad storm or she had a nightmare and couldn't wake her mother for comfort. She would wake Regina, such a light sleeper, and she'd scoot over in her bed for room and cuddle her up to her with warm blankets and tell her stories of princesses and knights and true love until she felt safe and could sleep again.

It shouldn't be different here, right? It should be BETTER really. Cora wasn't there, Regina was a queen, she could do what she wanted and if Regina still wanted her to come to her when she was upset or scared then no one could tell her not to. She just had to find her first.

She felt like a king would be in a big room and the biggest rooms, besides the dining hall and throne room, were on the top floors. Servants were always on the bottom floors or even lower, so kings had to be on the opposite. Not the towers though, those were for nobles to be locked away in, and dungeons were for not nobles to be locked away in, so it was just a room.

It should be easy to find though. She had seen it, briefly, when Regina had arrived, Regina herself had shown her it under the pretense of her carrying a small pillow and blanket for her up to the room. It was big with a balcony and vanity and large wardrobe and the bed was huge! She was sure Regina wouldn't mind her curling up in the bed too, it was so big she could probably spread out and never touch Regina either, so she wouldn't bother her much.

She paused as she reached a corner, frowning in thought as she looked to the left and right, trying to remember the way and then smiled, turning to rush to the left, remembering it was left because there was a painting of a man on a horse hanging right in front of her, leading a charge and pointing left, exactly where she had to go!

She hurried down it, knowing Regina's room was right at the end…but stopped dead, her eyes wide, just before the door as she heard something that worried her deeply.

Crying.

Someone was crying inside Regina's room.

No…REGINA was crying!

She didn't hesitate a single moment before she ran to the door and tried to push it open. She cursed herself being so little but wouldn't let up, throwing her whole body at it and pushing with all her might, sure that it must be locked because she should be able to open a door…but why would Regina lock her door? She never did at the manor, not even with Cora around, not that it would make a difference as the woman had magic. But she knew that, sometimes, a little girl would sneak around to come visit her at night for a story or comfort and she never locked her room because of that, so why now?

She closed her eyes, pushing again, wishing hard that the door would just open so she could go to Regina and help her…when the door suddenly budged, nearly sending her toppling to the ground as it moved. It wasn't by much that the door opened, but enough for her to squeeze in being as small as she was.

She ran right into the room, looking around for Regina, but there was no sign of her. She wasn't at the vanity or by the wardrobe or sitting on the bed or looking out the balcony or… she turned suddenly, hearing a shuddering breath and another cry, this time from behind the bed and ran. She rounded the corner of the bed and gasped in horror at the sight before her.

"Gina?" she breathed, her voice shaking, coming out a mere whimper as her eyes filled with tears.

Regina was sitting on the floor, her legs curled beside her, hugging herself, dressed in nothing but a baggy white sheath dress, sobbing. That wasn't the most horrifying thing, to see Regina in that state, clearly so upset and hurt that she would cry so openly. It was that there was a bruise spotting along her one arm, like fingertips, too big to be her own…and, worse yet…there was blood.

It wasn't a lot of blood, but it was enough to soak through the white of her gown, looking like it was right at the top of her legs, just a little lower than her stomach.

It was a testament to just how badly shaken Regina was that she didn't look up, didn't acknowledge the little girl standing before her, didn't even hear her.

Lyssa shook her head, feeling her breath coming in shorter bursts, not sure what to do, feeling overwhelmed at the sight and state of Regina, one of the strongest women she knew reduced to a sobbing mess.

She turned and ran out of the room, tears blurring her vision as she ran, going down the first flight of stairs that she could find, knowing that the servants were always on the lower floors, and knowing there was a woman there that could help Regina…

~8~

"We'll have to change the sheets, my dear," a kindly voice spoke, though even the gentle tone was enough to make Regina flinch for the words alone.

"I know," Regina swallowed as she sat on a small plush chair, rather long, a lounging chair, on the other side of her room, clutching a blanket around her.

The old woman that stood before her gave her a brief nod, moving to do just that, pull the bloodied sheets off the bed and toss them in a small wicker basket that had been placed by the door to the room for just that occasion. In the morning they would be inspected for proof of the union between their king and the young woman he'd taken as his new wife before being hung out the window so the kingdom could celebrate the union as well. It was a disgusting tradition, she felt, humiliating to the woman, but the old ways insisted and the men would likely never change it.

Regina watched, her expression blank, as all this went on, doing her best to remain unmoving as she sat there, despite her discomfort at remaining still for so long. Every shift, every movement made her feel the twinge of soreness between her legs that just served to remind her of what had happened only hours ago, to bring tears to her eyes as she was forced to acknowledge that her wedding night had passed, that she was someone's wife now, and it wasn't Daniel.

She closed her eyes tightly at that, swallowing down a sob at the thought. Daniel wanted to wait, he didn't want to do anything like what had happened until they were married. Nor could she really risk allowing it to happen despite how passionate some of their kisses had grown, not with her mother there, not with her magic and the reaction that would surely come if she fell pregnant by the stable boy. No, they were going to wait, they were going to wed, make the night special and romantic and wonderful, a dream come true.

Now all it was was a nightmarish reality.

Leopold had…not been as gentle as she thought most would expect the old man to be. He clearly had experience that she didn't have. She had the vague suspicion that he might not have thought she was truly innocent till he'd…

She swallowed hard, she was innocent, she HAD been. She wasn't anymore though, and come morning, the entire kingdom would know she was now the legitimate wife of King Leopold.

She felt sick at the thought, no…now it was a memory, a true memory of an event that had happened to her. A 60 year old man and…

"Best not to think on it," the old woman, Alice, if she recalled right, called out, pulling her from her thoughts.

"It's all I can think about," Regina admitted weakly, sucking in a shuddering breath, "He came to me, I didn't want him to, I didn't think he'd..." she cut off, closing her eyes.

She knew it was expected of kings to consummate the marriage, but she had hoped with everything in her that it wouldn't be like that for her. Leopold had already had a queen and wife, all he wanted was a mother for Snow, that was his reason for proposing, wasn't it? That Snow needed a mother? She had hoped it would mean that was all she'd be, something to hang off his arm at banquets, someone to raise Snow, not...not his actual wife.

Look where hope had gotten her.

Leopold clearly didn't want JUST a mother for Snow, any old nursemaid or governess could have taken that role. No, instead he'd bound them both together in a way that gave him full control. A Queen that refused her King was as good as dead.

He wanted more than a mother for Snow it seemed.

"I didn't want it," Regina repeated, trapped in the horrible memory, she wanted Daniel, not Leopold to be her first time, to be the one that helped her experience that intimate act. Now it was tainted, because all she could see? Her voice cracked, "He was on top of me and…"

"Best not speak of it," Alice cut in, though her tone was a little firmer than the gentle understanding it had been, more warning.

Regina looked up, confused by the change, only for Alice to nod to the side…where Lyssa was hiding behind the side of the wardrobe, looking at her hesitantly. She knew that look, she had seen the girl wear it whenever she would return to her mother in the kitchens with her clothing a little more soiled than it should be. It was a look that told her Lyssa wasn't sure if she was about to be scolded for something.

"Lyssa?" she whispered, "What…" she looked at Alice, alarmed, not having any idea why Lyssa was there or looking so fearful.

"She was the one who found you," Alice murmured as she came closer to Regina, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder, "Ran to find me, like you told her to."

Regina nodded vaguely at that. When she and Lyssa had arrived, she had been given a tour of the castle and had made sure to introduce Lyssa to a servant or two that she felt would be good for the girl to be around. She had only just gotten Lyssa to start talking again from the silence that had grown in her when Cora murdered her mother and Daniel. Alice was one of them, the 'midwife' though she was also a healer in the castle, the one that took on more of the minor injuries and illnesses that didn't require them to call the physician from his rooms. She had brought Lyssa to her, telling her that the woman was a helper, someone that took care of them when they were hurt, and to go to her first if she was ever injured or felt ill.

It seemed Lyssa had stumbled upon her rooms and run to get Alice to help.

"She did?" Regina nearly whimpered at that, of all the scenarios in her head for this night, she hadn't imagined Lyssa seeing her in the state she'd been in after Leopold left.

She could distinctly remember locking the door but perhaps she had been too upset and weak to really do it. She could remember stumbling to the door after Leopold left, trying to get the lock in place so the king couldn't come back for a second round, and nearly collapsed onto the bed before she remembered what had happened on it and fallen next to the bed. She didn't remember anything between starting to openly sob and when Alice came rushing in to check on her and get her cleaned up. She was in a new dress, a longer one, it covered her more, she'd taken a bath, scrubbed herself raw, and was clutching a blanket to her so tightly that she was sure the blanket would stay up if she let it go.

"Aye," Alice told her quietly, "Didn't say much as she shook me awake, made all sorts of distressed noises though, only said 'Gina!' over and over and nearly dragged me up here…"

"I'm sorry," Regina winced, thinking about what her mother would have done if Lyssa had tried that at the manor and not wanting Lyssa to get in trouble on her first night for disturbing the peace and…

"It's fine," Alice reassured her, "I'd rather her get me than Alastair," she huffed, spitting out the actual physician's name, they had something of a rivalry going, him with his medicines and her with her remedies, she could imagine the cold indifference the man would use finding a woman, the queen in such a state, he'd probably tell her to be pleased the night went so well. SHE was different, she could tell the girl before her had not wanted this life nor their king, and it was making what happened all the more traumatic and it was her duty, not just as a woman but a midwife, to care for the women around her, whether they be queens or maids, "All is well," she added, "Though the girl…"

Regina nodded, looking over to Lyssa, seeing the girl now had tears in her eyes as though she assumed she really was in trouble because no one had spoken to her or called her over. She shifted on the lounger, "Lyssa," she called, her voice horse, and managed to hold the blanket open slightly in invitation.

That was all the sign the girl needed to run over to her, hugging her tightly, making her wince at the discomfort of the pressure on her middle.

"Easy, child," Alice murmured, gently putting a hand on Lyssa's shoulder, crouching down to speak to her, which Regina appreciated, "Your 'Gina's' had a bit of a hurt," she gestured at her middle, near her legs, "She'll be sore so be gentle."

Lyssa nodded and looked back at Regina, leaning in to hug her much lighter than before.

"No, that won't do," Regina shook her head, grunting slightly as she moved off the lounger to kneel before Lyssa, pulling the girl to her and hugging her just as tightly. She let out a shuddering breath as Lyssa began to cry against her shirt, looking over at Alice over the girl's shoulder. She mouthed, 'thank you' to the woman who nodded before taking her leave.

"S-sorry," Lyssa whimpered against her.

Regina pulled away, frowning at her, "For what?"

"S-slow," Lyssa forced out, clearly not wanting to talk, not after what she saw, but knowing Regina needed her to. The woman had been trying so hard to get her to talk more since what Cora did, she didn't want to upset her more than she was, "H-h-hurt," she put a gentle, little hand on Regina's stomach.

"No," Regina shook her head, "It wasn't your fault, Lyssa, you got me help, you did NOT make it worse."

"Y-y-you w-were cr-crying," Lyssa swallowed hard.

"Yes," Regina nodded, knowing that it would upset Lyssa that she was hurt, but knowing that the girl was smart, she'd seen enough to know she had genuinely been feeling hurt and any lie right now would not benefit the girl. She was the last person Lyssa had left in her life, the last one she trusted, she would not betray that now, "The King…"

"Hurt you?"

Regina would have smiled at how Lyssa hadn't stuttered then, had it not been for how true it was, "Yes."

"M-mad?"

"No," she shook her head, knowing Lyssa was thinking of Cora hurting her when she was angry, "It's…it's a grown-up thing," she offered, really, REALLY not wanting to talk about it. Even just giving this much away was making her start to shake at the memory, "When you're older."

Thankfully Lyssa nodded at that, letting it go, but reaching up to touch Regina's face as a tear escaped her, "Sorry," she repeated again, leaning in to hug Regina once more, closing her eyes tightly as she felt Regina start to cry above her, unable to hold it in anymore.

Leopold was a bigger meanie that Cora was if he could make Regina cry like this, if he could hurt her so much there was blood.

She was sure, in that moment, that she hated Leopold with all her heart for how he hurt Regina.

And a terrifying thought struck her at that. If he hurt her once, he could hurt her again!

No!

No, he wouldn't. He wouldn't hurt her Gina ever again. She didn't know how…but she'd…she'd find some way to keep Regina safe. She may be a child, but one day she wouldn't be. One day she'd be big and strong like Regina, and she'd protect the woman just like Regina had always protected her. She just…she had to be strong now, she had to be strong while Regina was sad, she had to make her happy and calm and smile again.

Regina had to smile again.

"Love y-you, Gina," Lyssa murmured.

And she could feel it, Regina smile ever so slightly against her head, pressing a kiss to the top of her hair even as she sniffed, "Love you too, little fox."

Lyssa hugged her as tight as she could, promising herself that one day it would be real. One day she would be able to protect Regina, she had to be stronger though, and she promised, from now on, she'd work on that, on being stronger and braver and faster.

If she'd been stronger she could have opened the door, if she'd been braver she could have gone to Regina first instead of run at the sight of blood, if she'd been faster Alice would have gotten there quicker and Regina wouldn't have hurt for so long.

That ended now.

She might be a child, but she wouldn't always be, she would be older one day, she WOULD be braver and stronger and faster and she would protect Regina no matter what. She owed it, to Regina, to Daniel. If the man couldn't be there to protect Regina, to be her knight, then SHE would.

Meanies like Leopold and Cora weren't going to hurt her again, not while she was around.

~8~

Regina had never, in her entire life, been more thankful for Lyssa as she sat on the lounger, the little girl across from her. While her legs were curled up, Lyssa's little ones were dangling off the side, not even touching the floor, wiggling back and forth in a comical display of her size. It had been the longest night of her life, the worst nightmare of her life and that was saying something considering how Cora was her mother and her entire childhood had been one bad dream after another. And Lyssa had stayed with her. The little girl had to be dead tired, but she refused to leave, refused to go.

She was sitting there with scraps of paper and an old piece of charcoal, drawing pictures for her to make her feel better. She doubted anything would make her feel better for a long time to come, but Lyssa was so determined and she was speaking just the slightest bit more than normal, and it meant so much to her. All her life she could never recall her mother caring about her, loving her, all her life she could remember her father caring about her but never enough to go against her mother his fear being more overwhelming than his love for her. And here was this little girl, who openly loved her, doing all she could to make her feel better.

Lyssa had no idea the magnitude of what last night was. She had no inkling about what Leopold had engaged in with her to cause the 'injuries' and blood Lyssa saw. She didn't understand what had been lost and taken from her.

And in a way, she was thankful. Lyssa was a child, she was too innocent to know that, she was too pure and good to be burdened by that knowledge. And her innocence, her determination, it was endearing and she could feel tears coming to her eyes for a different reason than they had that night. That little girl was a godsend.

"And what's this one?" she asked, as she always did, when Lyssa handed her the next picture.

"Henny."

She almost laughed at that, a small chuckle escaping her at Lyssa's word, clearly meaning 'Henry' as in her father, but she didn't have a full grasp of some words yet. Even though she could pronounce Rs, there were some odd words here and there that she just couldn't get to yet. She already had a picture of her dearest horse, of Daniel, of the manor, of the tree they had picnics at, of herself and Lyssa holding hands, of flowers and clouds and the sun and the forest…all in black and white, but dear to her nonetheless.

"Very handsome," she murmured, eyeing the stick-like figure that was smiling back at her, "That _is_ daddy."

"B-birdie next," Lyssa determined, hearing the birds starting to chirp outside.

Regina had just started to nod at that, when she froze, hearing a knock on the door. All the color drained from her face as she looked over at Lyssa, sitting there and frowning at the door. She couldn't let Lyssa be discovered in her room, not after the night she'd had, not knowing who was likely on the other side of the door. Some guard or another come to collect the sheets with a member of Leopold's council. If they saw Lyssa there…she was NOT going to risk it.

"A moment!" she called to the door, turning to speak quietly, "Lyssa," she quickly got off the lounger, kneeling before Lyssa as fast as she could while ignoring the throbbing pain racing through her, "I need you to be silent, completely quiet, ok?" she looked into Lyssa's eyes as she took her hand.

"Cora?" Lyssa's breath shuddered at that, her eyes wide and fearful, "K-K-King?"

"No, no dear," she shook her head, reaching out a hand to run down Lyssa's hair, "I'm not supposed to have visitors," she told her, "We could both get in trouble if the guards see you," she looked over to the side, to the wardrobe, "Come," she took Lyssa's hand, leading her to the wardrobe and opening it, allowing her in with all the pictures in hand, "Hold these, and be silent," she held a finger to her lips.

Lyssa nodded, mimicking her move and scuffling back so that Regina could close the wardrobe but not entirely so that she wouldn't be scared of being trapped or in the dark.

She hurried over to the lounger again, sitting down, "Enter," she called, making a show of securing her dressing gown around her, frantically knocking the piece of charcoal off the seat beside her as she spotted it. She looked up, trying to appear poised and distant…

When she saw it was not a soldier or guard or councilman that stood in the doorway…but Leopold.

"H-husband," she stammered, swallowing hard, "Did you require something?" she was thankful she managed to keep her voice steady at that point.

"You weren't at breakfast," Leopold entered, a goblet in hand.

"I was tired," she supplied, tensing as he sat beside her, too close for comfort but unable to say a word against it.

"I suspected you might be," Leopold smiled at her…actually SMILED at her.

She felt ill.

He let out a long breath, "My council wished to collect our wedding cloth but I insisted I should retrieve it for them."

"Oh," she wasn't sure what else she could say about that, she wasn't sure how to feel hearing him speaking so easily about the sheets, how he so nonchalantly spoke of the night that would forever be burned in her mind as one of the worst of her life.

"I must confess, I had another motive for seeing you this early."

Her heart stopped, he couldn't be talking about…not again…not now, not after last night, not with Lyssa hiding right there!

Something about her expression must have given her away for Leopold placed what was surely meant to be a comforting hand on her knee, making her jerk, "Last night was perfectly acceptable," he reassured her, mistaking her expression for one of fear for her performance, "I believe it was a new experience for you. It merely takes time to acquire skills and grow more comfortable," he patted her knee, making her want to recoil, "This morning did bring with it a revelation about the night though."

"It did?" Regina asked, trying her very best to keep her bile down from his words, the implication that it would happen again. She wasn't a fool to think she wouldn't warm her husband's bed in the future, but to actually HEAR him confirm it was another thing.

"I'm afraid so," Leopold sighed, "My daughter, Snow," he began, Regina frowning, not sure at all what that had to do with last night, surely he wouldn't want her to speak to the girl about those events just yet, "I love her with all my heart and it is my greatest desire to see her inherit my throne when my time comes."

"She is your heir," was all Regina could say, still not sure what he meant.

"She is, she is," he nodded, "Regina," he turned to her, taking her hand, not noticing her cringe at the move, "I wish for her to remain my heir," he paused, waiting to see if she would understand, "My ONLY heir."

"You…" Regina blinked, "You don't want another child?"

That was odd, she could admit. Most kings strove for a male heir, more than one if possible to ensure the line continued, but here was Leopold telling her he wanted nothing of the sort.

"Snow is my daughter," he smiled gently at the thought of his daughter, "What occurred last night, it struck me this morning as I dined with her, that a child could come from it," he looked at her, serious now, "I will not risk Snow's right to the throne, I will not risk our union producing a child for it could be a son."

Regina felt the breath leave her, understanding now. Leopold wasn't just saying he didn't want a son, he was saying he wanted no children with her AT ALL. She could fall pregnant and it COULD be a girl, a girl that would pose no threat to Snow's claim as she was merely the second queen and Snow was the child of the first. But if she had a son, regardless of whether she was the spare queen or not, it would have a right to the throne over Snow. She could have a child, and it could be a girl, but equally it could be a boy.

Leopold wasn't willing to risk any children because of that reason, it could be a boy.

"That said," Leopold looked down, "You ARE my wife and you are expected to fulfill certain…_duties_."

"But a wife, a queen, is expected to bear a child," Regina swallowed hard, feeling confused again. If he didn't want a child but he still wanted her to fulfill other duties, the implication clearly being to warm his bed, what would the people think? Was he setting her up to be condemned? To be used and cast off later when the people demanded another heir, "The people…"

"Will merely expect us to try," Leopold waved her off, "If we fail to succeed, I still have Snow."

"IF we fail to succeed," she pointed out, her heart starting to beat faster, feeling a sense of hope surging in her, "The only way to prevent it is to prevent actions that lead to a child."

Had she misinterpreted his words? Was his bed out of the equation?

"Or…"

And with that single word, he crushed her hope entirely.

"There is this," Leopold held up the goblet.

"What is it?" Regina eyed it, taking it cautiously as he handed it to her, now able to smell a faint odor from it, nearly unnoticeable had she not been hinted it was something other than water.

"It's a potion I procured, it makes it impossible for us to conceive a child."

Regina felt her breath leave her. No, it wasn't 'us,' there was no 'us' in this. Leopold clearly meant for HER to drink the potion, for HER to be unable to conceive. Oh it was cleverly worded, she would give him that, but it wasn't true. She doubted it was even the full reason. Leopold was an old man, chances were he may not conceive a child on his own much longer. But she still could. For all he knew she could find a guard or a visiting noble and take him to bed and have a son by him, so long as the man shared enough of Leopold's coloring and perhaps some similarities in shape, no one would be wiser that it wasn't his child. He was doing this to ensure she would have NO child at all that might have a claim against his precious Snow.

And wasn't that just it, Snow. It all boiled down to her.

First she had taken her freedom to marry for love in her desperation for a mother and attachment to her, then she had taken Daniel in her inability to keep a secret, and now she was taking her future too! Her future was already in shambles being tied to the King as she was, her freedom gone, and now her womb was going to be cursed as well?

Had she not given up enough?

"It will keep Snow safe and allow you to fulfill your wifely duties," Leopold had the audacity to smile, as though what he was asking…no, essentially commanding her…to do wasn't a sacrifice that would kill her to do.

Did she want a child by Leopold? No. But that didn't mean she wanted to give up her entire future? The man was old, one day he would die and, if she was lucky, she might still have enough left of her childbearing years to have a child of her own, not that she thought she would because Daniel was dead and he was the only man she wanted to have a child with. But that didn't mean she wanted to give up that gift that women had for an old man and his spoiled daughter!

"Leopold…" she began, looking at him with tears in her eyes.

"I know, you don't have to say anything," he laughed, "You're very welcome."

Regina had never wanted to smack someone as much as she did him, to knock that pointless crown off his head and beat him with it for his assumption that she was tearful out of thanks.

But he was looking at her now, expectantly, he wasn't going to leave if she didn't drink the damned potion…and what reason could she give for why she wouldn't? To refuse would essentially be saying she wanted to have a child, which would be a threat to Snow…and if she was executed or banished for something like this, she would never see her potential with magic explored, she would never see Snow White punished for what she did…and Lyssa, little Lyssa, she would be alone, truly alone without anyone to care for her or protect her.

She took a deep breath and downed the goblet in one gulp.

"Excellent," Leopold too the goblet from her, standing, "I understand the potion can cause some discomfort," Regina only barely refrained from rolling her eyes at that, at how he told her that AFTER she drank it, "So I shall leave you to rest. I do hope you'll find enough energy to join Snow and I for noontime meal?"

Regina grit her teeth as she felt a sharp pain stab her in the stomach as the potion hit her, "Of course," she managed something of a smile and the king was gone, taking the wretched sheets with him, handing it to a guard just outside the door.

"Gina?" a quiet voice called moments later, just as she'd curled up in a pall on the lounger, on her side, feeling the potion really starting to affect her.

"Lyssa," she gasped, closing her eyes in pain.

Lyssa hurried out of the wardrobe and over to her, kneeling down before the lounger like Regina had before, taking Regina's hand in her own, "Hurt?"

Regina sucked in a deep breath through her nose, "A little," she squeezed Lyssa's hand, "Just…stay with me a moment?"

Lyssa nodded, stepping closer and using her other hand to stroke Regina's hair as the woman often did for her.

Regina nearly sobbed at the sensation.

She hated how weak she sounded, she hated that she was asking a little girl to stay and witness her discomfort and pain. But right now she needed someone there that loved her unconditionally, she…she needed Lyssa there, holding her hand, reminding her that she may never get a child of her own, but that there was a child there that did love her, there was a child that she could very easily think of and love as her own.

And now, thanks to Leopold, that was as good as she could ever hope for.

A/N: My reasonings for this chapter, with a tiny note about the pairing names at the end:

When Cora admitted she never should have made Regina marry the King, the look in Regina's eyes, I feel like this chapter HAD to come next :'( And it's so horrific, because it's realistic, even in a fairytale/medieval setting. Kings would marry women as young as 12 and actually expect them to bear children. The wedding night meant consummation and it sometimes required PROOF that the night had happened and that the woman bled, meaning she was a virgin. And the disturbing part is that it could either mean hanging the sheets out the window to show the entire kingdom that the marriage was real to having actual men standing there watching as the wedding night went on.

It makes no sense at all that Leopold, even if he only took Regina as a wife for Snow's benefit, wouldn't consummate the marriage. It was expected of him as a king. And really, a what 60 year old man who takes an 18 year old as a wife? There had to be more reasons than just wanting his daughter to have a mother, he could find that anywhere, but he accepted being _married_ to an 18 year old even when he knew love would likely not be a factor in it...so what else was there in it for him? Why would he accept such a binding relationship unless he also was getting something in return? If he was going to give his daughter a second mother to 'replace' the first, I expect he'd have a second wife complete with wifely duties :( It felt like there was more to him agreeing to the marriage than just his daughter, there had to be something in it for him too :/

So this was my interpretation of the wedding night and aftermath. Regina was 18, Daniel wanted to properly marry her by giving her a ring first, which said to me that he would be a proper gentleman and wait till the wedding night to be with Regina. On top of the fact that if they could only manage to steal kisses or a brief picnic here or there, they had no time to do anything more than that, nor would Regina risk having a child with her mother there to beat it out of her :'( Which means her first experience being with a man in that way was with a man 3x her age and one she didn't love. That alone would be enough to make the experience terrible for her on top of the expectation of it all as Queen :'(

I couldn't see Lyssa, in a strange new home, not wanting to find Regina and not understanding what happened and why she was crying or bleeding. It's a horrifying thing to witness at her age, not understanding the act that caused her 'mother' harm. She would hate Leopold just because of that, because he hurt her mother just like mean old Cora did, and when she's old enough to understand the mechanics behind it, she'd hate him even more, expectations of a king or not. Regina will work very, very hard to keep Lyssa from seeing 'making love' as being a torture just because sex hurt HER, she would want Lyssa to be able to be with a man she truly loved and tell her that it would be different when you're actually in love. It's one reason Lyssa wants to wait till marriage. Because then it means love and then it means a good memory instead of a nightmare. It reminds her of Daniel too, how he showed he loved Regina by waiting and wanting to honor her and do things properly ;)

Also, I know that Regina does, at some point, take an infertility potion in the show, in her Evil Queen mode which hasn't happened yet. There will be an explanation for why she takes it then despite having taken it here. That was also another thing I could see Leopold doing callously in his role as king. He adores Snow and he WOULD want her, the legitimate daughter, the daughter of his true love and first wife, to inherit his throne and be queen over any child birthed by his replacement wife, I'd think. He would NOT risk having a child with Regina, even if it could be a girl, because it easily could be a boy too. I could see him do this to her, ensuring Regina never have children by him that could usurp Snow's crown :'( It didn't fit in my head that in all the years Regina was married she never had a child by Leopold, it was my belief that Leopold would certainly take advantage of having a wife in his bed, so where was the child? It was either he was too old to have one or the infertility potion (because what was there to stop her being with a guard or noble to spite her 'husband?'). Either way, I could see him STILL making her take it because there are too many tales of an old king with a young queen and a dashing knight that comes along and steals the queen away, or an affair happening with a guard that leads to a pregnancy that everyone would either need to believe was Leopold's or he'd have to kill Snow's beloved 'mother' after for :( This was his precaution against his queen having a child that could have, in some way, a claim to the throne or upset Snow :'(

Poor Regina. When I look at it like this, how realistic and plausible it is, is it any wonder she reacted so extremely to someone taking her son away from her? :'( She gave up far more in being Snow's 'mother' than Snow White has ever realized...but she will one day }:)

On a lighter note, today and tomorrow will be the last days to drop a review with a pairing name for Hook and Lyssa :) I'll have the poll up on my profile on the 20th so the last day to submit names is tomorrow, the 19th ;)

Some notes on reviews...

I can say that Regina being around Cora and helping her even with Lyssa there will be, in a small way, my own way of making something that happens later in the show more realistic and understandable ;) I can't say what that is at the moment, but whether or not Cora will do something to Lyssa, we'll have to wait and see }:)


	17. Tiny

A/N: I'm back! I'm back and I'm very sorry that there was a few weeks delay in this story. I've been tutoring my sister's boyfriend for his classes and his professor essentially doubled their workload after spring break so it's been overwhelming the last few weeks. Right now, this week, I'm trying to get some key stories updated so that I can at least let everyone know what's been going on, why there have been some delays, and what to expect going forward.

I have some news to share **in the ending A/N** for you all. Namely I published a book and my updating for this story will be a little different than it should be (I won't be updating every other day or every day but more whenever I can get time to get the next chapter edited), but most of that will be explained more in the end A/N so be sure to check it out!

~8~

Tiny

Lyssa paced outside of Mary Margaret's apartment, off to the side where she couldn't be seen as Regina stepped into the room right after the door opened as Mary Margaret and David were heading out. She could hear them inside, talking, the walls weren't that thick, but she couldn't still her pacing.

This was dangerous, very dangerous, for them to be there while Cora was 'out.' Cora had divulged some of her plan to them last night, not everything, neither of them were foolish enough to think that Cora would tell them everything, nor were they so naïve as to think that her promises of having told them everything important meant anything at all. But they had both decided that, what little Cora had told them, it should be relayed to the so-called heroes. They needed to know that Cora was at large and that Regina was innocent, and it would help to re-prove her innocence if Regina was the one to tell them that.

So far though, things were taking a different turn than what they expected when Regina entered the apartment, she could hear them speaking, hear Regina telling them that she wasn't responsible for the cricket's death…

"He's…alive," David's voice echoed into the hall, making Lyssa pause in her strides.

That…was not something they'd known. Cora had implied that she had killed the cricket but that the others had learned the truth by now, she hadn't said anything about the man being alive. Not that she wasn't grateful to learn he was whole and hale.

"What?" Regina's voice sounded as startled as Lyssa felt.

"You were framed," Mary Margaret agreed.

There was a pause as Regina hesitated, clearly trying to sniff out how much more they knew before she said anything, "Who would do that?"

It did make sense, if they already knew Cora was there then their plan might be in danger. If they knew before Regina did that Cora was there, then, well…given how quickly they'd leapt to the conclusion that Regina was once again evil and had killed the cricket, there was an almost certainty that they would take her own knowledge that Cora was back as evidence that she was working with Cora. Cora would have had to be in town for longer than they thought in order to construct the entire thing against Jiminy Cricket, and if Regina came in now and told them Cora was there, when they already knew, they might assume she had KNOWN since then that Cora was around and had withheld the information from them.

"Your mother," came the reply, "She's here."

"But…" Lyssa could hear the stutter in Regina's voice, "But that's…that's…not possible."

Lyssa let out a breath at that, agreeing with Regina's turn from the plan. The last thing they needed was for the heroes to jump on the 'you knew!' thought and accuse Regina of hiding Cora all that time. Playing dumb was the best way to avoid more accusations in this scenario.

But there was still one thing else that they needed before Regina could go…

"When we found a way back, so did she," Mary Margaret spoke, "We were wrong…and we're so sorry."

"I know," Regina said rather curtly, not wanting to spend too much time on references to Cora, "But, if Cora's here, then we're all in danger. Please, you have to let me see my son. I can protect him."

Lyssa held her breath as another long pause was drawn out from within the apartment. She couldn't help but bite her lip at that, silence was never good, it meant hesitation, and that could mean anything for the heroes.

"He's not here."

The breath left her at Mary Margaret's words. What?

"What?" Regina echoed her thoughts.

David's sigh was audible even through the door, "Mr. Gold asked Emma to help him find his son. They left town about an hour ago with Henry."

Lyssa's eyes widened for a moment at that information, that Rumpelstiltskin had a son of his own, but that was something to be filed away for later when the rest of the sentence hit her…Henry had left?! When did this happen? HOW did this happen? How had they not known?!

Why hadn't anyone called and told Regina?! She was his mother! She, of all people, had a right to know when her son had been taken out of the town! That was…wasn't that tantamount to kidnapping? Or were the heroes going to skew the laws of adoption as well? Call Emma his real mother and that it was her right to leave with Henry where it wouldn't be for Regina?

"And no one told me?!"

Lyssa winced at that, she could almost feel the rage in Regina's words.

"We didn't know where you were," was Mary Margaret's brilliant answer…as though Regina didn't have one of those small communication blocks, a 'cellphone' as Regina had called it, as though no one knew different places to leave a message for her, you didn't need to know where someone was in order to communicate with them, "And, to be honest, Regina, I don't think Emma has to run anything by you."

Lyssa snorted at that, rolling her eyes, Emma most certainly DID. She wasn't fully sure how adoption worked in this world compared to the Enchanted Forest, but it seemed even more strict. Regina had described it as Emma signing away every right she had to Henry, wanting nothing to do with her baby. That meant he was all Regina's, Emma should be the one to 'run things by' Regina, not the other way around.

"No," Regina muttered, her voice growing closer as she headed for the door, "I suppose she doesn't."

Lyssa looked up as Regina stormed out of the apartment, giving her daughter an almost defeated, yet quite angry, look for her final words. Lyssa could only offer her a sad, sympathetic look in return.

This world was overrun by heroes, ones who had taken the law into their own hand, the sheriff was the law here and Emma, and the rest of the heroes, would twist the law to fit them, make it so Regina had no legal right to Henry even though she did. None of them would fight on Regina's behalf, none of them would defend her right to be Henry's mother. None of them would ever tell Emma that it should be the reverse, that she should be the one to seek out Regina's permission instead.

She reached out and put a hand on Regina's arms, giving her another look, a soothing one. She told her, in a single expression, that she didn't blame Regina for not saying a word about Cora's plans or their knowledge of it. They had come there to ensure Henry would be safe, that Regina would at least be back on the path to being allowed time with her son again. And been rebuffed at both turns.

It was just as well, Lyssa thought as Regina's purple magic swirled around them as they disappeared, if they couldn't turn to the heroes to help with Cora…they would do it themselves.

~8~

Hook groaned as he stepped into a deserted alley near the docks, grateful for the bite-sized giant making the scene he did back on the Jolly Roger and distracting the heroes long enough for him to slip away unnoticed. He had been cornered by the heroes while lying in the hospital, forced to dress and practically dragged out of the place with express orders to lead them to his ship. It appeared the cricket had talked to them, blurted out where he'd been kept and by whom, and that meant he was not expected to show them how he and Cora arrived in Storybrooke and anything onboard that might give a clue to Cora's endgame. The only thing he'd had to do was show them the shrunken giant left in a cage on the ship and they were focused on releasing him, the giant hadn't reacted well to the sight of those before him. And now, with a giant on the loose vowing vengeance against their beloved Prince Charming, he was sure they'd all have more to focus on than an injured pirate. But, now that the giant had been released, that was something he needed to inform a certain sorceress about. Cora had brought the giant on their journey for a reason, whatever it was, it wouldn't look good for him if he led the heroes to it, even unwillingly, and then failed to tell her the man was gone.

He valued his head where it was, attached to his neck, and his heart still beating in his chest.

He winced as he leaned over to place a card on the ground, the Queen of Hearts, Cora's enchanted calling card. She had instructed him to place it somewhere if ever he needed to call upon her.

"Hello Hook," a voice spoke behind him…a voice that was distinctly NOT Cora's.

"Regina…" he began, slowly turning to face the woman that, he was quite certain, would be very irate with him for not having killed Cora as was their original agreement.

But his words were cut off when another voice shouted out before he could even spin around fully.

"Killian!"

The second voice was far more welcome a voice, the breathy, gasping quality to it belying the worry and concern for his truly haggard appearance.

He let out a pained grunt when a flurry of blue and red flew into his arms, nearly sending him stumbling back had he not firmly planted his feet to the ground in anticipation of such a greeting. He let out a breath quickly after, his arms wrapping around the thin waist pressed against him, burying his face in Lyssa's neck in relief.

"Lyssa…"

Lyssa pulled away, her eyes wide as she looked at him, her hand coming up to gently touch the bruising on his face, stepping back ever so slightly as she seemed to realize his injuries extended far past just his face judging by the way he was nearly hunched over.

He closed his eyes, turning his face to press his cheek into the palm of her hand even as he felt the gentle wisps of her magic drifting over his face healing what she could, easing his pain.

"Oh Killian," she murmured, looking so pained herself just from seeing him in such a state, "What happened?!"

"Had a run in with one of those bloody 'cars,'" he grimaced, his missing hand now hidden by a false glove drifting down to his cracked ribs, "But the Dark One has been dealt with for now," he grinned at her.

"You should be more careful," Lyssa chastised him, her other hand moving to his chest, her touch a stark comparison to Emma's, light and gentle, healing and soothing instead of meant to harm him. Her gaze flickered back up to his eyes, "I thought I lost you to the Forest," she spoke, her voice so soft he almost missed her words, "I don't want to lose you before I got you back."

He gave her a small smirk, not a teasing or taunting one, but a pleased one, "I'm Captain Hook, love," his hand moved of its own accord to her cheek, "I'm good at surviving."

"I'd rather you survive in one piece," she huffed.

"A bit late for that," he held up his stump of a hand, managing to stand a bit straighter thanks to her healing magic. His ribs still felt tender but better than they had.

She reached up, pulling her hand off his face to place it lightly on his false one, "You know what I mean."

"Aye, love," he nodded, "I'll do my level best to do better."

"Thank you," she smiled, leaning in as though she were about to kiss him…

When a throat cleared behind her.

"'Love?'" Regina's voice called out, flat and guarded, causing Lyssa to tense as she turned, almost in Hook's arms, to face her mother who raised an eyebrow at her, crossing her arms, "Something you'd like to tell me, dear?"

Lyssa gave a wince, more of an embarrassed one at being caught so distracted by her own mother than one of shame at who she'd been caught with, "Um…" she bit her lip a moment, "You…you remember how I started to tell you about the crew, be…before Emma showed up with her 'evidence?'"

"Yes," Regina nodded, "I don't recall anything about a torrid affair with a pirate," she shot Hook a narrow-eyed look.

Lyssa stepped forward, her eyes going wide, "No, mother, it's not like that," she gestured back at Hook who respectfully stayed quiet as the two women spoke, her hand moving back though her eyes remained locked on Regina, till it rested on his chest, "Killian is…he…we…"

"Analyssa," Regina's tone left no room for more stuttering or hesitation, it was that of a mother expecting their child to start talking…and start talking now.

"I love him," Lyssa blurted out, a blush staining her cheeks as she spoke, "I…" she sighed, "I love him, mama," she repeated, quieter now, clearer, "I really do."

Regina inhaled deeply at that, her gaze flickering to Hook, "And you?"

"Aye, your majesty," he replied, his false hand moving of its own accord to rest on Lyssa's waist even as Regina rolled her eyes at the added title, "T'is true."

"You love her?" Regina didn't scoff at that, in fact, she looked entirely too serious as she observed Hook.

"I do."

She considered them both a long moment, stepping towards them till she came to a stop right before Lyssa though she looked over the girl's shoulder at Hook. Nearly a minute later she turned her focus back to the ginger girl, staring her in the eye, "Are you happy?" she asked her quietly.

Lyssa's resulting smile was nearly blinding, "I am, so much," she nodded, reaching out her other hand to take Regina's, "I…mother he's…" she struggled to find the words to express how she felt, when she found them, "He's my Daniel."

Regina let out a gentle breath at that, knowing how serious this must be for Lyssa to say something like that. She knew how important Daniel was to her, how much she loved the stable boy, how…how happy and loved and safe he had made her feel even with Cora lurking in the shadows. For her to say Hook…that the pirate was to Lyssa what Daniel was to HER?

Lyssa would never make such a declaration unless it was true, deeply felt, and…and reciprocated.

"I love him, mother," Lyssa whispered, "With all my heart."

Regina found herself nodding slowly at that, a small smile starting to grow on her face, "Then I'm happy for you."

This time it was Regina that did stumble back when Lyssa threw herself into her mother's arms and hugged her tightly. She could hear it in Regina's voice, the sincerity, something that had been lacking in Cora's voice when Regina had tried to tell her mother the same thing. Regina…she knew what love was, she knew what it felt like, and she knew how important it was to have it and to hold onto it. She knew the pain that could come from refusing to allow love to grow, and she would never, ever do that to her daughter.

She loved Lyssa, as a mother should, and she wanted her daughter to be happy, she wanted her to feel love and have it returned. It was all she had wanted for the girl in her arms, especially after all the horrors Lyssa had witnessed done in the name of love, what Cora had done to Daniel, how the King had treated his second-Queen, how the Black Knights thought of their Queen…with so much against her, Regina had made it her mission to make sure Lyssa would be able to love someone in a healthy way and to know when the love returned was unhealthy.

For Lyssa to love the pirate…he must have proven himself to Lyssa that he did truly love her in return…and for that Regina could accept their relationship.

"Thank you, mama," Lyssa sniffled in her ear.

"Of course, little fox," Regina hugged her tighter, her expression so soft that, when she opened her eyes to look at Hook, the man actually took a step back at how quickly it had changed and hardened when she took sight of him.

There was a fire in her eyes, a threat and a promise of infinite, immeasurable pain for him…but it was one he knew stemmed from a place of love for her daughter. It wasn't a hatred for him, it was a wariness for what he could do to the girl in her arms. It was a mother's promise that if he hurt Lyssa…there would be no power on earth that would cease the fire and brimstone she would rain down upon him for the pain her daughter suffered.

He wasn't sure what Regina expected from him seeing the promise in her eyes, the warning, but he squared his shoulders, set his jaw, and gave her the firmest nod he could, holding her eyes all the while. It was a promise of his own, that she would never have to cause such destruction to him, because he had no intention to harm Lyssa.

Regina gave him a nod and pulled back, her expression morphing once more into a wide smile as she cupped her daughter's face in her palms, "I'm glad you found your Daniel."

It was a standard she wasn't fully sure Hook could live up to, not to her, but in Lyssa's eyes he must have and for that…she would give the pirate a chance. One single chance, to prove it to her.

Lyssa beamed at her, reaching up to take her mother's hands and squeezing them once more before stepping back to stand between her mother and Hook, looking back and forth between them, not seeming to notice the slight tension between the two in her joy that things had turned out well.

And why wouldn't they though? Regina was NOT Cora.

"Why do you look so shocked, Hook?" Regina eyed the man, not that he looked truly shocked, but more…pleasantly surprised. In all actuality, it HAD gone much better than the pirate had thought it would, "Surprised that I accepted my daughter's love," in a way her own mother hadn't accepted hers was left unsaid, "Or that it was me that showed up and not my mother? You know, the one you were supposed to kill?"

"Oh, that," Hook forced an easy grin onto his face, thankful that the moment had passed. While he did love Lyssa, it was awkward as all hell to have to stand before her mother, the Evil Queen and hope for her blessing to continue their relationship, it was awkward, for him, to be so open about it at all, "Well, I didn't want to deprive you of a happy reunion."

"Well, it's your lucky day," Regina considered, looking at Lyssa, the girl still smiling, and couldn't help the smile returning to her own face, "You have the favor of my daughter. And my mother and I have made amends."

"Cora wants to know if they found the Jolly Roger," Lyssa let out a sigh, sensing that the conversation had drifted back to the initial reason for appearing and not the lighter, happier things.

She hadn't understood why Cora had insisted she and Regina answer the magical summons that had come through, insisting that all she cared about was if the heroes had found the pirate ship she'd arrived on, but she was glad that they had come. She had wanted to go find Killian the moment she'd found out he was there…but with Cora around, it was best not to leave her alone with Regina. She didn't trust Cora around Regina, she didn't trust the woman not to hurt Regina again. She always did. Every time she appeared Regina ended up hurt more and more. She knew Killian would understand though, her mother was all she had left of her family, she would do anything for her, just like Killian would have done anything for his brother.

"Well, you can tell her, she can ask me herself," Hook looked at Lyssa, his tone not matching the words he spoke.

"As much as I appreciate that," Lyssa smiled at him, understanding it was his way of trying to keep her from having to go back to Cora and speak more to the vile woman, it was his way of trying to get Cora to come to him herself and have the discussion, to focus on him and not her, "She won't leave just to speak to you. I can't imagine why," she remarked playfully, "I love speaking to you."

Hook chuckled softly at that, trying to ignore the fact that Regina was watching their interactions closely, "As do I you, love. But then," he looked over at Regina, "You can tell her they found the ship."

Regina nodded, "Did you get her things off it?"

"I've been tied up in bed," Hook deadpanned, "Not in the good way."

"They chained you up?!" Lyssa's eyes widened, getting the hidden message of his words, "Again?"

Regina lifted an eyebrow at that, looking at Hook for that remark, that he'd apparently been chained up by the heroes on more than one occasion.

"Not quite so bad as before," Hook reassured her, "I was in a bed this time. In some sort of 'hospital?'" he shrugged, "You healed me better than they did," he added to Lyssa, making her blush. He knew she always felt lacking in her magical skills, even if healing was her stronger set, even if she hadn't quite healed him to the extent other true healers could, he liked knowing that he could encourage something for her.

"As interesting as your lie in is," Regina cut in, "Mother needs her things."

"Oh, I'll bet she does," Hook grumbled, "Well, there's good news, then. A giant got loose from the hold."

"You lost a giant?" both Regina and Lyssa spoke, both with very different tones.

"Well, a shrunken giant."

"How is that good news?" Regina shook her head.

"Because, when he got free, he took one look at the Prince, and became extremely murderous."

"How is that good news?" this time it was Lyssa that asked the question, a frown on her face. Usually when anyone was murderous, other people got hurt. And while she had no love for the heroes of the town, the town was also full of other people, children, innocents.

"A giant in town who wants to kill the Prince would be just the distraction we need," Regina explained.

"But…he won't hurt anyone else, will he?" Lyssa looked at them.

Regina had to smile at Lyssa's concern, that was one of the very large reasons why she had never truly lost her mind in the Enchanted Forest, why so much of what the heroes thought happened were so off base, "We can make sure he won't."

~8~

Lyssa took a deep breath as she spotted the giant-that-wasn't-so-giant sitting on a log in the middle of the woods, looking so lost and scared that her heart broke for him. She glanced back at Regina and Hook as the stood at the edge of a treeline, Regina giving her an encouraging nod to speak to the man before she turned to face the giant again. She slowly began to make her way over to him, not wanting to spook him, it was part of the plan. Regina and Hook had both agreed that they were likely not the best candidates to speak to a murderous giant about getting revenge on someone that had wronged him without it spiraling out of control and turning into a 'just destroy the entire town' spiel.

They both had quite a bit of anger issues to work out.

But she was gentle-hearted, but wise enough, to know that sometimes vengeance needed to be sought without others needing to be hurt in the course of it. She was kind enough to not want those that didn't deserve to be hurt to be hurt, and yet experienced enough pain in her life to understand that others sometimes needed to feel like they had done something to honor those that had been harmed by others. She would be someone that could talk to him about how to get his revenge without harming too many other people.

The giant turned as he heard a rustling behind him, glaring at her as he leapt to his feet, "Get away from me!"

Lyssa quickly held up her hands in peace, "I'm just here to talk…"

"No," he spat, "You're human. I hate humans," he stumbled back as Lyssa took another step towards him, "Don't come any closer! Or I'll kill you!"

"You won't," Lyssa smiled gently at him, lowering her hands as she moved to sit on the log, not making any other move.

"How do you know?" he glared at her, "That's all you humans think giants do. Kill people. And then you attack us when we haven't done anything!"

"I'm sorry," she gave him a sympathetic look, "Humans hurt you, didn't they?" he was silent, "The prince?"

He let out a small growl at that, "He's the reason my entire family is dead!"

"His wife is the reason practically my entire family is dead," she looked down at her hands.

The giant fell quiet at that, "She…she is?" he hesitated but took a single step back towards the log.

Lyssa nodded, "She told a secret and…and my father and…and my mother were killed as a result," she swallowed hard, "I nearly died too but my adoptive mother saved me. She survived, took me in. She's all I have left of my family."

The giant shuffled a bit more, sitting down on the other edge of the log, "His wife caused that?"

"Heroes," she murmured, a slightly bitter tone in her voice, "They cause all sorts of trouble, but never admit to what they've done, how they caused it."

"No they don't," the giant agreed.

They were silent for a moment before Lyssa continued, "I don't like the prince either."

"You don't?" the man glanced at her, shuffling closer.

"He's mean to my mother," she told him, "All the time. Just…horrible to her, I hate it."

"That sounds like him," he remarked bitterly.

"I think he needs to be taught a lesson," Lyssa added, "He needs to understand that actions have consequences. I think all the heroes need to understand that. They can't just go around acting so…so righteous and never admit when they're wrong. They can't…they can't do bad things and get away with it when everyone else has to be punished when they do wrong things too!"

"Yeah!" the giant nodded, "I wish…I wish I could just…" he let out a defeated breath, "But I can't," he muttered, "I'm…I'm _tiny_ now. I can't do anything to stop him."

"I…I might have something that could help," Lyssa offered, pulling a small handkerchief from her dress pocket, unwrapping it to offer him a small piece of a white substance with a bit of blue inside it, "Mother told me this will make you bigger. That you'll be your normal size again, but just for a little," she warned, reaching out to put a hand on his as it extended to take the mushroom morsel, "Just…promise me something?"

"What?" the giant hesitated, not sure what she would ask of him.

"Your…your quarrel is with the prince," she began, squeezing his arm lightly, "Don't hurt anyone else?"

The giant let out a relieved breath, "I don't want to hurt anyone but him."

Lyssa nodded, "Ok then," she released his arm, letting him take the small piece of mushroom, watching as the man took a bite from it and, in a swirl of blue magic, grew to his full, gigantic height.

"Thank you," the giant spoke down to her.

"Be careful!" she shouted up at him as he began to turn and march towards the town, hoping it would prove enough of a distraction for the heroes without causing too much damage.

She glanced back at Regina and Hook for a moment before taking a few steps towards where the giant had started walking, watching him go even as the duo watched her.

Hook and Regina were silent as they stood there, having watched Lyssa speaking to the giant too quietly for them to hear what she was saying, which was just as well. If they couldn't hear her, then she likely couldn't hear them in return.

"I don't know if it was clear before," Regina remarked to Hook while Lyssa was distracted watching the giant go, "But if you hurt her…"

"Yes, yes," Hook rolled his eyes, "You'll rip out my heart and crush it."

"Oh no," Regina gave him a truly frightening smile, "You harm _my daughter_, you break her heart…I won't just crush yours. Death would be far too kind a fate. No. You hurt her, for any reason, and I'll show you exactly WHY I was called the Evil Queen," she held up her hand, a fireball clenched tightly within it, "Understood?"

Hook winced as his voice cracked, "Aye."

"Good," Regina smirked, quickly extinguishing the ball when she saw Lyssa turn to smile at them, the ginger girl heading back to them, "Well done, dear," Regina went to meet her halfway.

Hook would forever assert that he stood there because it was a tender moment between mother and daughter, a praise well deserved…and decidedly NOT because his legs might have shaken just a little at the death threat given to him by his love's mother.

It was not that _at all_.

A/N: For this chapter: I couldn't see Regina rejecting Lyssa's feelings for Hook or her questioning or downgrading their relationship. She knows what it feels like to be in love and have a parent be brutal about it or try to disagree with it. She wouldn't ever do that to Lyssa, she would support her, try to accept Hook as a result...but also be very, very clear to Hook that she will go full Evil Queen on him if he hurts her daughter ;) On another note, I feel like Lyssa would be the one to talk to the giant and even agree with his anger against David because, from her point of view, she's going off of the giant's word that it was DAVID that attacked his family. The giant doesn't believe it's a 'twin brother' and Lyssa is basing it on what the giant said, that it really was David that hurt his family, much like how Snow White hurt her own family.

For the stories and updating in general: A few tidbits of information to follow...

1\. This story will not be updated every other day. I've been trying to keep to a schedule for updating, but life has been hating me recently and eating my time due to jobs and side businesses and original writing and family and things, so what I'm going to do for the time being is update when I can. I have the chapters written, but editing takes me almost the same amount of time as writing, so it'll mostly be whenever I can get a chapter edited is when the story will be updated.

2\. This means that we'll be seeing this story, Doctor Who (Angel) story, my Big Bang Theory (Claire) story, and even my Lord of the Rings story updated whenever I can get a chapter edited. So we may get a chapter of something every day, or here and there. It may take a week to get an update for this story or just a day or two, it'll really depend on the time I have in a day and what chapter I can get through for whatever story to get it updated.

3\. Because I won't be sure when the next chapter will be up, the quest of pairing names for Hook and Lyssa are still open, so if you have one, leave it in a review and, hopefully, by the time the next chapter is up I'll be able to get a poll ready for them to vote on ;)

4\. I won't be posting my OUAT (Piper) story for season 5 until I have, at the very least, finished this particular story for Lyssa. So when CBTS is over we may see Piper's resuming and then I would pick back up with Lyssa once I've caught Piper up.

5\. _**I'VE PUBLISHED A BOOK!** _:D It's an e-book so far, available on Amazon (they offer a free Kindle App so you don't have to buy a kindle to read their e-books). It is 'Patrapolis' by Elixabeth Xavier (my penname, which is derived from LizzeXX), and it is $3.99 ;) There is a URL for it on my profile ;)

I think that's pretty much it lol :) I'm very glad to be updating again, even if it'll be a little more stretched out, but a little is better than nothing :) I'm hoping to be able to get back to posting more consistently when the summer is over (when my second part-time job should be done).

Some notes on reviews...

Cora has...a few tricks up her sleeve definitely }:) We'll have to wait and see how she might use Regina's fondness for Lyssa against her or why Regina might go after the dagger too ;)

The days for updating the story got a bit lost the last few weeks :( Originally it was every other day, but life seems to like getting in my way whenever I set up an actual schedule now so I'm going to try, for the time being, to update when I can. I have chapters pre-written, I just need to edit them and it'll depend on how much time I have in a day to get that done. Some stories, like my Big Bang Theory story, take less time to edit than, say, my Doctor Who stories. So if I have a busy day, I may only be able to get BBT done, but if I have a day off I might do DW, if I have only a few hours at work I may get other stories like this one edited. So I can't say for sure when the next chapter will be up, but the story WILL be continuing ;)

I felt sick thinking about that chapter too :( That's why, I think, this chapter and Regina's acceptance of Lyssa's choice in partners is so important. She knows that Lyssa witnessed some very traumatic things as a child and she's done her best to try and build her daughter back up to a place where she can view things like love and men and relationships as something healthy and good and not always so hurtful. To see Lyssa being able to find love and accept a relationship, even with Hook, means Regina's succeeded in helping her daughter heal. And I think it also speaks to the relationship she has with Lyssa as her mother, she put Lyssa first. So while Regina might have some wounds and scars that won't heal or fade from the experiences Lyssa witnessed, at least her daughter has a better chance :') We'll see even more of Leopold though and Lyssa's thoughts on him and the marriage to come though :(

For now updating will be more of a 'when I can I will' thing :( I'm not happy about it, but sometimes when I set a schedule for myself and fail to see it through for whatever reasons that get in the way of it, it makes me anxious and stressed. Like the more I fall behind the more stressed I get trying to catch up and it just gets worse as time goes on :( So for now, as soon as I can get a chapter edited, that's when I'll post it :) So I can't say when the story will be updated, I have other stories going on and all of them vary in editing times, but I'm going to try my best to be frequent about it. The story WILL continue, the updating might be a little slower than every other day though ;)

Yup, Lyssa is Regina's adopted daughter and she very much dislikes Snow for things that happened both to Regina and herself ;) Lyssa's definitely not very happy that he teamed up with Cora, but if the choice came between Cora or Snow, even Lyssa would pick Cora :( Hook, however, coming from a slightly less personally affected place than Lyssa, sees Cora as the lesser of two evils than Lyssa does. It'll be interesting to see them play with that ;)

Oh I want an EPIC showdown between Snow and Lyssa very much too ;) Whether it'll be quite as public as I'd love for it to be, we'll have to wait and see }:) I can say Lyssa has some hard truths for the heroes, and Snow, to swallow ;)

Very close! Lyssa is 'technically' Regina and Daniel's child, in the sense that she views them as her parental figures (for Daniel) as a child and as her real mother (Regina) when she grows older :) She understands she had a biological mother and father, but Daniel was her father figure and that ideal just grew more cemented as she grew older with Regina looking out for her and loving her like a daughter, which makes her see Regina as her true mother which means Daniel has to be her 'father' too ;)


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